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SCMP Reporter

TUEN MUN has emerged as the most probable site for two waste incinerators the Government plans to build to burn rubbish that will soon overflow Hong Kong's landfills.

 Green groups and the nearby villagers in Lung Kwu Tan are preparing for a fight over the $10 billion project.

 Scientists are still arguing whether burning waste pollutes the air. The decision to incinerate Hong Kong's rubbish comes at a time when the Government has also vowed to improve air quality.

 The two 150-megawatt incinerators will burn 6,000 tonnes of rubbish a day and convert the heat into electricity. The incinerators are the second stage of the Government's long-term plan to stop digging landfills.

 Green groups and people who live close to the earmarked site said incinerators emitted harmful dioxins and mercury.

 'Whatever comes out of the incinerators will pollute our air, our water and the food that we eat,' said Clement Lam, a local Greenpeace campaigner.

 'There is no safe level of dioxin.'  Hong Kong is a target of Greenpeace's international campaign to fight incinerators. Mr Lam said the Government was choosing a hasty and dangerous option to deal with waste.

 But Kim Salkeld, Deputy Secretary of the Food and Environment Bureau, said: 'That's complete and utter rubbish. Ten years of work has gone into the incinerator project and it is only one component of a range of waste-reduction efforts.'  The Government has completed the first part of the plan - to phase out old polluting incinerators and promote domestic recycling.

 But green groups say waste-burning incinerators should be a part of the past.

 'We have closed down incinerators in the past, but that does not mean we will be building the same kind as before,' said Conrad Lam, principal environmental protection officer at the Environmental Protection Department.

 When Hong Kong set up its landfills in the 1980s, planners expected they would last half a century.

 But waste disposed of in Hong Kong's three landfills has risen from 12,500 tonnes a day in 1989 to 18,000 tonnes a day last year. The amount of domestic waste has nearly doubled from 5,000 tonnes a day in 1984 to 9,300.

 Mr Lam said the other three sites at Junk Bay, Lamma Island and Ha Pak Nai were still being considered, but during the environmental impact study, problems emerged with each of these locations.

 The incinerators must be in areas where the wind will blow ash away from Hong Kong, and in places that are near to power plants, so that energy generated by the incinerators can be used for electricity.

 Junk Bay and Lamma Island have large populations and wind complications. In Ha Pak Nai, the nearby villages with 400-year-old archeological ruins and wetlands would make it more expensive and complicated to locate the plant there, Mr Lam said.

 But the possibility of building the incinerator at an entirely new location had not yet been ruled out, Mr Lam said.

 The studies have been under way since 1997.

 Mr Lam said the incinerator project would not move forward until the environmental assessment was completed for Ha Pak Nai.

 The Government estimates it costs $630 a tonne to handle, ship and dump Hong Kong's rubbish - nearly $6 million a day. The new incinerators will cost an additional $260 million a year to operate.



Villagers ready to fight incinerator