Lines drawn as legal battle over third Hong Kong runway begins
Campaigners fearful of environmental damage aim to stop work from starting next month as marine expert warns it ‘could be the last stand’
A four-day judicial battle between activists and airport officials over the contentious third runway project begins today, with the former hoping that a High Court decision will stop initial works from commencing next month.
The judicial review lodged by Lantau resident Ho Loy and supported by the Dolphin Conservation Society and People’s Aviation Watch, challenges the Environmental Protection Department’s issuing of an environmental permit to the Airport Authority. They were granted leave last February.
Marine biologist Dr Samuel Hung Ka-yiu, who chairs the society and has lobbied hard against the plan since its inception, said he was optimistic that there will be a positive result.
“This could be the last stand,” said Hung. “We feel our reasoning is strong and exposes very obvious breaches of procedural justice.”
The challengers say there are two unresolved areas of the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) – airspace and habitat loss – both of which contain major, unaddressed issues.
The team is pointing to a lack of immediate mitigation measures to compensate more than 650 hectares of irreversible habitat loss, mainly to the Chinese white dolphin, offering instead an enlarged marine park when the project is complete in 2023.