Steel workers say huge fuel depot is too close to smelter

Workers from the Shiu Wing steel mill in Tuen Mun say the government is putting lives at risk by allowing construction of the world's biggest fuel depot to go ahead 50 metres away from the plant's smelter.

The workers say an explosion at the depot would be three times bigger than the one that rocked the Buncefield fuel depot in Hertfordshire, England in December. The terminal, which stored 16 million litres of fuel, burned for three days in what was called the biggest fire in Britain since the second world war. The Tuen Mun depot will hold more than 26 times as much fuel.

'Building the world's largest aviation fuel depot right next to a high-temperature mill is a time bomb,' said Daniel Ho Ping-ki, spokesman of the group. The plant sends up open flames as hot as 1,100 degrees Celsius.

The Airport Authority depot will hold 420,000 cubic metres of fuel when it opens in 2008. A spokeswoman yesterday said it had received all necessary approvals.

'We had meetings with district councillors, and carried out environmental impact and safety assessments to make sure that we will meet local and international standards,' she said.

But the workers' group, which calls itself the Shui Wing Employees of Anti-Aviation Fuel Tanks in Tuen Mun Area 38, claims the authority did not carry out a quantitative risk assessment as required by the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance.