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SCMP Reporter

HONG KONG air quality could worsen when a huge coal-fired power station is built on the eastern shores of Mirs Bay in Guangdong.

  For half the year, prevailing winds would blow fumes and pollution straight across the bay to Hong Kong, according to Royal Observatory records.

  The 2,640-megawatt Eastern Shenzhen power plant will be more than twice the size of the Lamma Island power plant, and will generate enough electricity to provide for two-thirds of Hong Kong's current total requirements.

  However, Dr Bill Barron of Hong Kong University warned: 'Even if this power plant is cleaner than average, Hong Kong still needs to be concerned.'   Beijing has already given preliminary approval to the scheme proposed by a subsidiary of Hopewell Holdings, Consolidated Electric Power Asia (CEPA), headed by Gordon Wu Ying-sheung to 'provide a substantive solution to the fundamental demand for electricity in the area', according to CEPA's annual report.

  Spokesmen for both CEPA and Hopewell have refused to comment on the plans, but according to CEPA's annual report 'negotiations are ongoing'.

  The report said the plan already had the approval of China's State Planning Committee, and is expected to be brought on line by December 1998.

  However, environmental experts say the power plant will cause a further deterioration in Hong Kong's air quality, which is already appalling by world standards.

  In Hong Kong, most power plants are built to the west so the prevailing winds blow emissions away from the land mass.

  Records at the Royal Observatory show about 50 per cent of winds reaching the territory come from the east and northeast which means they would carry pollution from the proposed power plant.

  Mr Wu mentioned in a lecture at the University of Hong Kong last month that the new plant would conform to World Bank Standards for developing countries.

  But according to an expert in environmental management, those standards may not be appropriate for Hong Kong.

  Dr Barron from the Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Hong Kong said the advanced development of Hong Kong, and the large-scale development of China were not typical of developing countries.

  'The real issue is that the World Bank standards are designed for a situation where the country already has a certain carrying capacity in the environment,' he said.

  'What may be an acceptable level of emissions in one place may not be acceptable in another place because of the existing level of air pollution.'   'In this case you don't have a developing country down wind, you have a major urban centre which may well suffer,' he said.

  He said the power plant emissions would affect the background air quality which is the air people breathe constantly (as opposed to occasional blasts of car exhaust).

  'Hong Kong needs to be very concerned - our ambient air quality is already bad,' he said.

  'The concern is that anything that contributes to that would potentially be risky.'   Although China has stringent air pollution regulations they are sporadically enforced and do not take into consideration the effect of cross-border pollution.

  Jo Ruxton of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said not only would the power plant affect air quality in Hong Kong, but it would have a dire impact on the newly declared Mirs Bay marine park.

  She said left-over sludge was a major concern but 'my biggest concern would be the extra dredging and shipping in the area'.

  The scientific services officer for China Light and Power (CLP), Dr Richard Jack, said CLP took into account the effects of pollution when designing their plants.

  'CLP build all their power plants on the west side for the simple reason that 11 out of 12 months of the year the prevailing winds are from the northeast,' he said.

          He said the effect of the Shenzhen Eastern power plant would depend on the type of technology used in the plant's filter system.

  'The problem with coal-fired stations is some do not have flue gas de-sulphurisation (FGD) which cuts down the amount of sulphur that goes into the atmosphere,' he said.

   He said other Hopewell power stations such as Shajiao B used pulverised fuel without FGD, 'so we can assume there will be no FGD at Mirs Bay'.



Power plant risk to air quality