The ESG has received additional information from Algeciras colleagues, AGADEN, regarding the ongoing sewage pollution at Western Beach.  

Background:

A few months ago, and after the issue had been highlighted to the Spanish group by the ESG, a number of letters were sent by AGADEN to various Spanish authorities calling for action to clean up this waste.

 The response from La Junta explains how it has ordered La Linea Ayuntamiento to take all necessary steps to urgently eliminate further waste from being discharged into the sea and find an immediate solution to this problem. Current water sampling indicates this has not yet happened.

 The ESG hopes that this additional pressure from La Junta will produce results from the Ayuntamiento who recently said it would resolve the sewage problem by mid June. However, the ESG has not yet witnessed any activity to confirm that works have even begun. Both the ESG and beach users have received news from MEP Graham Watson’s office in Brussels that the Petition and Complaint are firmly in place and will remain so until such time as this issue is resolved.

 We shall continue to monitor the situation and invite members of the public to send in any information or photographs which may be helpful in resolving this problem.

 Please contact ESG 200-48996 or email: esg@gibtelecom.net  for further information

ESG : Recent news that a Sovereign Wealth Fund from Abu Dhabi had taken over CEPSA Oil Company came as a surprise to the ESG and other Bay campaigners. An article in April’s Economist discusses how this type of “buy-out” is not the exception but a growing trend in the oil industry today- For more, read on:

Because the ESG has been around for over 10 years now, (yep, you heard right!), it may be helpful to remind the community why our group was created in the first place. Our mission statement which appears on our website home page, says: “The ESG works to promote environmental issues within the community. Concerns of: air and water quality, pollution, preservation of our green areas, traffic, need for renewable energy, litter/recycling and climate change are the focus of many ESG campaigns.” Bearing all this in mind our totally apolitical charity is very pleased to update you with news on some of these issues

 In our last broadcast, for example, we advised we were invited to meet with Conservative MEP Julie Girling for the first time. We found the exchange of views productive and worthwhile and were encouraged by Ms Girlings’ expressed willingness to lend support to MEP Graham Watson already engaged in various battles on our behalf in Brussels

 CUTW 2011 is beginning to stir and the ESG has recently held a high level meeting with the Minister for the Environment and Heads of various key Departments to address the progress or otherwise of the issues flagged under this Campaign. Of course there is positive change with last year; our sixth clean up, forecasting definite change with Government and Master Services assuming responsibility for the care of green and coastal areas previously targeted each year by our incredible teams of volunteers. As with any project though, overnight miracles are not realistic and so we plan for the best course of action for our voluntary effort for 2011 which will likely include 3 or 4 target areas with a greater degree of interaction with the authorities. A first CUTW planning meeting will be held on the 10^th May and the logistics team will be notified directly.

 The ESG has been invited to participate in a Mediterranean-wide exhibition to be held in Malta in June to mark World Environment Day. The idea is for materials to be exhibited in a week long awareness programme from local and external NGO’s from the region. We will gladly take up this opportunity of spreading the word of our work, particularly our efforts to protect the regional environment using cross border co-operation to achieve our objectives. The Mediterranean Ecosystems are under great pressure from the ever increasing coastal developments and all efforts to increase awareness of the damages we are incurring and the potential solutions for sustainable alternatives have to be supported.

 Closer to home, the ESG is co-ordinating an awareness day in Gibraltar on the 27^th April to mark World Earth Day. The official date is the 22^nd April which is Good Friday and so we have opted to delay our activity to the 27th. While local environmental progress is becoming more discernible, there continues to be a time lag in recognising our responsibilities towards – safe environmental practise – and – action – and there will be a number of local examples under the spotlight at the stall. Please come along between 12.30 and 2.30pm to the Piazza on Wednesday the 27^th April where members of the GONHS, FoEGib and the ESG will be on hand to discuss these issues with you. 

Thanks for listening-

ESG concerned about “Healthy Play Park” in La Bateria, Rosia Road

8^th April 2011

The ESG would like to caution users of the exercise park in La Bateria, Rosia Road,  to use the new equipment mindfully and to be aware of wind conditions which could direct high pollution emissions from the power stations to the park area.

Harmful pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter known to cause respiratory ailments and other illnesses are contained in emissions from the diesel engines combustion process from power stations as well as traffic fumes.  ESG urge park users to watch out for south westerlies in particular when air quality could worsen at the park. 

(See http://www.gibraltarairquality.gi/moreinfo.php?n_action=pollutants&t=3 )

• Today marks the end of March 2011– Time certainly doesn’t hang about and in this frenetic pre-election year we seem to be pushing forward at breakneck speed in every direction!

• The ESG welcomes the fact that this week’s newsletter contains positive news as well as our usual gripes, so let’s start with some good news!

• Many of you will already be aware of the sudden announcement by the La Linea Mayor of the planned reparations to their collapsed sewage system aiming to have works completed by the middle of June!! This is brilliant news for the thousands of beach users who hope to be able to use Western Beach this year but only time and monitoring of the area will tell if it will be clean and safe enough to use. On this occasion the combined efforts of beach users, NGO’s, agencies, Govt, cross border NGO co-operation and MEP support appears to have delivered a solution!! I mention all these because this is what it has taken to finally see appropriate action by the La Linea Ayuntamiento.  Just shows what can be achieved when communities pull together. Perhaps this heralds a change in our environmental fortunes? Let’s hope so!

• Not even a few days had elapsed when we read in the local media that the European Commission had finally conceded shortcomings at the CEPSA Oil Refinery– well, our first official complaint was laid before the Commission in 2002! – Three Commissioners later, numerous petitions, trips to Brussels, and investment in time and energy and finally we get their agreement about the problems present at the plant. We are extremely happy about this result and are planning to celebrate this achievement as well as the next steps with increasing confidence.

• We have also seen in practice the benefits of having a voice in Brussels via our MEPs and today the ESG will be meeting another of our representatives, Conservative MEP Julie Girling. We shall take the opportunity to also brief her in full on regional environmental issues and hope in future we will also be able to count on her support in Brussels.

• On other matters the ESG has welcomed the announcement by Government of the contract for the new Power Station. It is desperately overdue and if the three aging power stations are shut down immediately the new station is operational, we should see wide spread improvements in our air and noise quality which will bring great benefits to all.

• Sadly, we are nowhere near there yet and the ESG was shocked to see a “healthy” playground, (a pavement work-out ensemble), set up immediately in front of the spewing chimneys of the MoD and OESCO power stations- an area known to be an environmental hotspot with pollutants measured at levels considered harmful to health. We therefore call upon Govt to rectify this slip-up without delay and mothball this so-called healthy play park. We shall also be raising awareness in the nearby residential areas for people not to use this equipment until such time as the stations are removed.

• This week saw a lengthy article in the Chronicle by Breast Cancer Support Group giving their views on breast cancer rates and the recently published Epidemiological Study carried out in Gibraltar. Please also look out in the media for the ESG article titled “Epidemiological Study – What now?” which you can also find on our website: www.esg-gib.net

Thanks for listening-

Epidemiological Study – What now?

Beginning 2011 saw the publication of the Epidemiological Study on the Gibraltar population. This long awaited study highlighted several very important issues:

1) The quality of data available ( See more on this below on Data Quality)

2) The size pool targeted

3) The need for cross border studies to include conditions and public health problems in communities throughout the bay

4) The need for further specific studies to be conducted in Gibraltar to investigate why we have higher than average rates of breast cancer, for example;

5) The need to now take up the recommendations made by the scientists in the report for further study

6) The need to explore how Gibraltar’s local and regional environment affects our health and life expectancy in general

(See http://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/images/stories/PDF/environment/Epidemiological_Study.pdf

General Statement:  The ESG welcomes this first study produced by the University of Aarhus in Denmark. We believe that historically, Gibraltar’s data resources and analysis on both environmental and public health grounds have been very poor or non-existent. This study therefore marks a turning point in officially acknowledging the important link between these two areas. The report also recommends further studies and extended monitoring needed to identify external factors most likely to be affecting our health.

Continuous, improved health and air monitoring data gathering should provide more opportunity for meaningful studies to be carried out in future which should then activate action plans to improve general health and environmental standards in Gibraltar.

Very importantly you need to also have a Government in power who believes these issues are a priority as progress will only happen when supported by the right policies, political will and investment.

The ESG will continue to lobby for effective and transparent studies to be done to help us achieve a better quality of life for our families and respect for the living environment.

Data Quality:

Having established that the publication of an independent Epidemiological Study is a necessary and welcome step for Gibraltar, the ESG must clarify that it continues to be concerned about the quality of air monitoring data used as baseline material in the report:

Specifically:

1) That all regional emission data was obtained by levels admitted by industry (ie not independent) and which the industry themselves publish. We know for a fact that this information is not reliable as it doesn’t take into account fugitive emissions, equipment integrity (air monitoring), etc. which in a large refinery is a large proportion of its emissions entering the surrounding environment;

2) Regional pollution levels affecting Gibraltar have then been calculated, using modelling and dispersal methodology based on this flawed data, to estimate how this could be affecting public health locally. It points to the urgent need for independent, measurements of actual pollution locally by the authors of the report, to verify the local and regional data supplied and published by the authorities/industry on either side of the border. This would be especially important for pollution levels around the refinery;

3) The report has also not taken into account or verified via their own sampling, local sources of pollution in Gibraltar either by direct measurement or theoretical dispersion modelling as they have done with the Spanish pollution data. The ESG does not understand how this could have been set aside;

Conclusion:

Given these points the report cannot therefore be the definitive one as its methodology is based on pollution modelling data and data levels of pollution supplied by industry themselves and without taking into account local sources of pollution. The study is a good initial start for general reference but much more and with higher quality of pollution measurements and data collection needs to be carried out for the results to be reliable and accurately reflect the reality on the ground.

This paper is copyright ESG prepared March 2011

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“The ESG has campaigned for nine long years to see our aging and heavily polluting power stations replaced due to the severe air and noise pollution produced at each site as a by-product of the electricity generated.

This week’s news of a contract being awarded by Government with detailed breakdown of works involved, expected costs and timeline is brilliant news and something we have been waiting to hear for a long time. We hope that the schedule for completion is this time adhered to strictly and that the three power stations are closed and decommissioned without further delay, as soon as the new power station is operational. This would alleviate the long standing problems suffered by residents around the three power stations of heavy noise and pollution.

Clearly fossil fuel reliance for Gibraltar’s’ energy needs on a long-term basis is not a position supported by the ESG. The group sees the new power station as a critical and important step for immediate environmental and health benefits for the community and surrounding environment, but believes that once in place, the focus should move towards the sourcing of biofuel (such as biodiesel, waste vegetable oil, or natural gas from anaerobic breakdown of sewage and domestic waste) as fuel for the new power station, with which it could operate with little or no changes to its engines depending on the biofuel used.

Given the land restrictions and limited size of Gibraltar this might be a more viable short and medium term sustainable solution for energy production. The new power station can therefore also be part of the move to renewable energy production if it is operated with the right fuels and conditions.”

GONHS on Initial reaction to EAMP (Environmental Action & Management Plan)

and on Eastside Bunkering

Each year since 2007, the ESG has drawn attention locally to a global campaign called “Earth Hour”.  While symbolic in part, this exciting campaign also reminds us of the urgent need for collective action on reducing energy use and improving energy efficiency- 

Earth Hour is on Saturday 26th March at 8.30pm for one hour and the ESG and the Government asks everyone to support this global campaign by switching off unnecessary lights during this time.  The Gibraltar Government is once again switching off spotlights on iconic sites in support and the Scouts are planning an event on the day to promote awareness of this important campaign.

New to the campaign locally is that Ocean Village Resort is getting behind the initiative and will be holding an on site vigil as well as carrying out other awareness raising efforts to bring the message home to this part of Gibraltar.

The ESG calls upon the Gibraltar Community to support the events on the day and the campaigns’ aims beyond Earth Hour. Watch out in the media for more information on the events planned for Saturday. 

Visit:- http://www.earthhour.org/ for more information on how this year Earth Hour evolves beyond the hour and beyond the light switch………..