ESG PRESS RELEASE ON AIR POLLUTION

3rd August 2017

Recent south district air pollution levels have been causing concern among residents. Aside from impacts from background shipping, bunkering and temporarily sited skid generators, two factors could well have exacerbated conditions during the hot and close weather towards the end of July. Strong smells of gas, apparently emanating from across the bay, affected a large section of the south of Gibraltar on the afternoon of the 25^th July, and although short-lasting, caused significant concerns. It is hoped that the Gibraltar Government is following up on what could be a transboundary pollution incident of significant effect. The second was a particularly intensive vessel overhaul recently undertaken at the dockyard.

The ESG came across an online shipping report on the recent completion of a 12-day programme of works on MN Tangara carried out by GibDock, ending in the last week of July. Works were indeed extensive and included multiple tasks carried out in parallel with each other. Among these was painting of a surface area of 12,300m2 (including hull, superstructure, funnel, crane, etc.), pipe and propulsion works, in-situ bonding of stern tube seals, ventilation works, electrical and more besides. This suggests that various industrial processes and materials were used that would have, combined, produced intense, fumes of all types. Such fumes spread rapidly in hot weather and it is no wonder people have felt the full impact as reports indicate.

Despite the nausea and distress caused when particularly heavy fumes enter homes, the air monitoring stations are still recording legal limits on certain pollutants (as not all stations measure all pollutants). This demonstrates once again how Gibraltar should be raising EU safety thresholds due to the proximity of polluting activity to housing. It is noted that the VOC benzene analyser has been out of action for some time, which needs replacing, especially as large paint contracts are being carried out.

It is disheartening to note that, despite efforts to address south district pollution via the re-introduction of onshore power connection at the Dockyard, increased monitoring of the site by agencies, and the mothballing of two very polluting power stations, that residents continue to be affected in 2017. It calls for more scrutiny over the nature of works that can be carried out as well as the time of year these can be done in. The placing of hundreds of people right alongside the dockyard has undoubtedly created a difficult and unsustainable situation, which needs to be looked at very carefully. 2017 has been an especially busy year for the dockyard with multiple vessels in for service at any one time. It could be useful for an on call telephone number to be provided by the company so that residents can report issues of excessive noise and air pollution as they are happening. GibDocks recent ISO environmental accreditation should encourage fence line monitoring and community feedback.

The ESG is also aware of the impacts from pollution in the NW district especially during these hot months and continues to lobby for real-time monitoring to be set up in this zone.

See link for shipping report referred to in the Press release:

http://www.motorship.com/news101/shiprepair-and-conversion/gibdock-con-ro-repair-job

ESG Radio Newsletter 27^th July 2017

Hi there-

–This week we look at important Clean up the World Dates/Pollution in our midst and ask how clean in fact are our beaches? Pens at the ready – this years Clean Up will take place on the 23^rd September. As usual we will tackle year round hotspots that tend to be in natural spaces – examples include green slopes and coastal areas. Since 2005 our volunteers have placed great energy and effort into cleaning up Gibraltar with many age-old dumps and fly tipping sites eradicated. A visit to the ESG premises – that is presently being fixed up at Wellington Front – will soon enable the visitor to see exhibits and watch films outlining the remarkable projects undertaken under the clean up banner by citizens, businesses, services and NGOs- all pulling together for a cleaner Gibraltar over the years. Fantastic! A formal launch of our premises will coincide with the Clean up itself.

–We are currently developing workshops and planning meetings so email us at esg@gibtelecom.net if you are interested to take part. Planning mtg will take place on the 22^nd August.

-The recent announcement and approval by the DPC of the construction of a Waste Management Plant by the Eco Park Team to sort and prepare Gibraltar’s waste locally, is strongly welcomed by the ESG. This aim, to maximise recycling potential of our waste, over any form of incineration, is positive news indeed. We shall be following the development of this project with interest, as it will be a challenging and revolutionary step for Gibraltar to become self-sufficient while moving recyclable waste to various destinations for the greenest possible waste solutions.

–At the start of this newsletter we asked how clean were Gibraltar’s beaches? We ask this because it is well known that despite the clean conditions at beaches at the start of the day in the height of summer, that litter will slowly build up, at times, unacceptably, highlighting the need to change attitudes in those who persist in dumping rubbish – this can be anything from cigarette butts, to the infernal pippita shells, to cans, bottles, and plastic bags; these discarded at the end of the day after holding down umbrellas.

–It is unacceptable that as a community we continue to treat our precious beaches in such a careless and thoughtless manner. Much of this waste will end up in the sea contaminating that ecosystem and potentially harming all that live within it. For the rest it can only degrade the area that people will no doubt re-visit and want to use safely and cleanly on another occasion. Why then not think about the consequences of just dumping where one is sitting? Use containers to hold your rubbish until the end of the day. Then, dispose of this at the appropriate bins provided for this purpose. If this is full – take your rubbish with you. Respect for the environment should be uppermost on all our minds and not just the younger generation who are encouraged to think like this at school. We also must set examples to younger generations..

–It is not only the sandy beaches that are adversely affected. Visit Camp or Little Bay evening or early morning, before the cleaners have been through, and witness the way overnight revellers and some beach users have left the areas. This affects both people and the environment!! Bins are provided so do the right thing, be responsible, and show civic pride – think before you dump!!

–You may have spotted new recycling bins on our beaches – there will be an information campaign happening next week to encourage their use and help beach goers also recycle their waste. Information is welcomed.

–There is now a new Feedback contact where you can report environmental issues of a littering or vandalised nature. That is at:   env.feedback@gibraltar.gov.gi  or telephone at: Tel: 200-65964

–Moving on to pollution – it is no secret that summer months bring with them the unwelcome spectre of heavy and often intolerable smells and pollution in our local airspace. The ESG takes up these issues with Govt on a regular basis and was relieved to note that onshore power connection and conversion at the Dockyard site and at the Port was happening. This means that vessels in for service will be able to plug into local power supply and shut their engines down thus eliminating funnel emissions. We do not yet know if these are in place and are seeking this information from Government. Paint overspray and offshore bunkering will still have their negative impacts and these should be quantified by efficient and mobile real-time monitoring equipment to assure public safety. We continue to lobby for this.

– Traffic pollution is also especially felt in this season with buses, coaches and diesel cars in particular needing to minimise idling with much greater rigour. Regular traffic should also follow a stricter code of behaviour on idling given the proximity of most of our roads to people and housing. The ESG is also lobbying both Ministers for the Environment and for Transport on these issues.

– A brief summary of our latest List of Objectives is published online at esg-gib.net. Here you will find all areas of concern to the ESG, our understanding of the issues and what we believe needs to be done. Hope this proves useful to you. Get in touch if you want more information.

Thanks for listening!

ESG Radio Newsletter 10^th November 2016

The Presidential American elections have sent seismic waves throughout many of the world’s communities. For obvious and varied reasons.

From an environmental point of view, it seems the battle has only got harder. With Brexit implications under the microscope we already face an indeterminate, yet major challenge to ensure that Gibraltar’s environmental regulations continue to be held to the highest possible standards. We shall continue to focus on these issues.

However, the Trump victory threatens a possible peel back of the USA’s recent endorsement and participation in the Climate Change Paris agreement, one of the more robust to have emerged from these meetings over the years. Caroline Lucas and Al Gore have spoken out about how people have to have faith that science and evidence based rationale for reducing carbon emissions, will now be very hard to dismiss or ignore, even for someone like Trump – yet we all know the Republican Party has always denied the threat of climate change – and will likely now try and overturn their commitment and fan their coal and other fossil fuel industry – It’s frightening, and very sad that major steps could be repealed this way. Still, Gore and Lucas believe people power and determination can help stall such action – lets hope the American people rally round their environmental leaders and fight to remain in the global response to climate change –

Like everyone, we shall be watching closely to see quite how seismic the promised policy changes may be. Also highly recommend you watch a recently released film by Leonardo de Caprio on Climate Change called Before the Flood– fascinating and frightening, inspiring and compelling – a must watch for anyone wanting to learn more about this critical issue facing humanity and the living environment. Go to Youtube and search the title. Timely release of this National Geographic documentary coincided with election day in America hoping to inform and influence public opinion. Given the result, lets hope the film will continue to inform and educate and strengthen public opinion and ensures that the USA continues its current support in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

A recent meeting with the Port Authority allowed us to present concerns of quayside pollution and impact, highlighting reports from residents on the frontline along the west flank of Gibraltar. Gibraltar has held an international bunkering convention this week hoping to develop this business further locally. With fuel business already on the rise and impacting on the quality of life of many residents, we shall continue to press for best available technology to be regulated into all port practices including vapour recovery and onshore power connection. Portside communities elsewhere in the world are also suffering the consequences of rising commercial and leisure shipping activity causing associated air and noise pollution, and, are demanding similar regulations. We shall continue to press for these here in Gibraltar also.

The ESG faces a busy period coming with talks, awards, and the publication of a number of reports.

Our website is also facing an upgrade and will soon display our campaigns and information in a much more user-friendly manner.

If you haven’t yet signed the ban the plastic bag petition, being run by the Nautilus project, you can still find it online at change.org. Link is also posted on our website. Of course plastic bags is one type of waste that threatens wildlife particularly at sea, but is one that can be replaced with biodegradable equivalents, and preferably reusable bags. Both the ESG and GONHS have campaigned on this before and have publicly supported this current petition also.

Finally, just to say you can catch up with our news and press releases if you visit our website, which is esg-gib.net, you can also email us at esg@gibtelecom.net for more information.

Thanks for listening.

Liquid Natural Gas clarification sought once again

In the recent interview by the Chief Minister on the new Power Station and LNG Terminal, we were told that all necessary assessments had been completed.

The Environmental Safety Group agrees that there have been extensive assessments made on the safety and on the environmental impacts of these projects, sited as they are so close to urban areas and to the marine environment. The ESG has always stated its preference for the location of such industrial activity to be away from residential areas.

During the last major discussion at the Development and Planning Commission involving the LNG project, at which the Environmental Impact Assessment certification was examined, the ESG raised a number of issues that were still pending and were of concern. Most of these, we were told, were the remit of COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards), which is another level of certification that is required, and the Group was assured that details of this critical assessment and contingency review would be made available when the COMAH investigation had been concluded.

However, with these results still not available, the public now learns that the LNG project is poised to expand even further, with the prospect of bunkering. This is a great concern to the ESG, and no doubt to many residents particularly those of Waterport Terraces, Harbour Views, Sir William Jackson Grove, Mons Calpe Mews, Watergardens etc,. The assurances given by our Government to the ESG in private meetings, and to the public in Press Statements that this bunkering activity would never be supplied by the North Mole terminal now seem to have been made too hastily. When the ESG raised this concern last year, it was irrefutably allayed on many occasions by the Government of Gibraltar, who insisted that there were no plans whatsoever to carry out this activity at this terminal that is designed and dedicated solely to our power station requirements.

If it now appears that either Shell or GoG or both need to promote LNG bunkering activity from the North Mole terminal to justify their expenditure on this project, then the reality of the situation has been misinterpreted by the ESG, and the public, and this is the clarification that we are now asking from our government. Furthermore, we ask how this much higher level of LNG activity can be contemplated without the ‘green light’ that is required from the COMAH investigations.

The ESG Committee

ESG Radio Broadcast 25^th August 2016

With Clean up the World 2016 a month away today preparations of equipment and other important materials are now underway. We are now consolidating teams and sites and urge anyone interested to please get in touch soon. Preferably by email to: esg@gibtelecom.net. We shall be holding an awareness event in town on the 20^th just before the Clean up where we hope to share information and raise the profile of Clean up issues. This will be our twelfth campaign in Gibraltar as part of a global movement that inspires grassroots action to help local environments everywhere. With the core theme being: Our Place, Our Planet, Our Responsibility, we believe this campaign is as relevant today as when we first started, and call upon the community to lend its support as it has done in past years. The clean up itself will be held on the 24^th September and volunteers and team leaders will be expected to attend the main planning meeting in early September.

The issue of LNG has been in the news again. Those who follow our work will know we have been closely monitoring this project and have given our views publicly at each and every stage. We have held recent meetings with GibElec regarding on-going works at the new Power Station site, interested in ensuring that the measures we called for last year, for Best Available Technology to be applied, will be seen through. These relate to electrostatic precipitators, stack monitoring, and adequate assessment of diesel use to encompass a wider time period than envisaged in the present studies. Basically to limit pollution affecting residential areas closest to the plant. Separately we are also keen to see the COMAH assessment and contingency plans on the LNG storage and its operational use; this remains pending.

The Chief Ministers interview this week regarding LNG bunkering and any possible use of the North Mole terminal in this regard has not featured in any discussion/assessment or exhibition held to date that we have been a part of. Indeed we have had assurances that the east side would be the area to be used for LNG bunkering, and even then, after careful assessments. We are taking this up once again with Government.

In the past few weeks Western Beach has been in the news and much-debated on social media. The key focus has been on the extraordinary and mountainous volumes of seaweed amassing on the shores of this beach. It has failed to make the news, however, on the levels of sewage contamination, which has rightfully caused red flags to fly on a number of occasions, and continues to this day.

While past summers have seen a reprieve during the bathing season from dumping of very high volumes of sewage at Western Beach waters from La Lineas’ infamous storm drain, which occurs all year round, and since 2010, this time we are in the middle of a bathing season, and we are clocking up exceptionally high levels of E Coli and intestinal enterococci microorganisms, both from faecal matter, which pose a grave threat to public health.

We would like to draw attention to this current polluting activity which can be seen on the Environmental Agency’s website and should, in our view, result in beach closure if this is not eliminated.

Finally, the DPC meets next week on the 31^st August at 9.30am at the John Mackintosh Hall. The agenda is up on the egov.gi site and contains a number of interesting applications that will be discussed. Remember these meetings are held publicly at the Charles Hunt Room.

Thanks for listening!

ESG Radio Newsletter 24^th March 2016

 Key Words:- Traffic and Transport Plan, Tracking and Idling, Western Beach and Large Marine Fuel Facility

In this newsletter before the Easter break we wanted to share some focus on a few environmental issues of interest to the public and our members.

As many will know the ESG works year round to achieve as many of our goals as possible. These goals are contained in our Wish List, or Core Aims list and can be found on the home page of our website: esg-gib.net.

We have recently met with the Minister for Transport, Mr Paul Balban, and presented our concerns and aims related to transport and traffic in Gibraltar. We have also been calling for the publication and implementation of the new Traffic and Transport plan. We therefore welcome the Ministers interview on GBC recently committing to the imminent release of the implementation plan.

We are also keen to see installed the bus tracking system believing this can only help persuade more and more car drivers to move to using public transport with confidence. Another concern we have is that of idling – that is leaving your engine running while parked – be it roadside anywhere, or at the border especially when there are traffic jams or gridlock. Idling releases toxic fumes which are harmful to health and affect pedestrians, cyclists and even those same people sitting in cars. Idling wastes fuel and also produces noise pollution. In the UK there are various statutes and laws, which exist to minimise and control unnecessary idling. We shall be taking this matter up once again with the Minister to explore what can be done in Gibraltar to eliminate this additional pollution from our streets.

Western Beach is once again in our sights as we prepare our response to the European Commissions pledge to look at taking legal action against Spain for the infringement of fecal water discharge into this cross border site, fairly certain now that the Sp Authorities appear to have no intention of resolving this environmental problem. We are also calling on our MEPs to follow the process and progress of any legal moves on the part of the Commission. If action isn’t taken soon it is likely that Western Beach will not be open this summer under the higher bathing water standards now in place.

The ESG is preparing a separate press release on the recent tender announcement by Govt and the Gibraltar Port Authority regarding inviting proposals for a substantial Land Based Marine Fuel facility in Gibraltar.

We want to know if this facility will replace the current activity at the Detached Mole. We have called for transparency and full public participation in any land based fuel facility as contained in our wish list but believe the situation has changed given that LNG is now being discussed not only for the new power station but also as a potential bunkering fuel. As a group we are very concerned about industrialising Gibraltar further and will be seeking answers from all involved on this project.

That’s it for now –thanks for listening – have a good and peaceful Easter break and remember you can always get more information from our website at esg-gib.net.

ESG Radio Newsletter 12th November 2015

Hi there- midterm break over and election hustings are now well underway. The ESG has published its wish list along with several other NGOs and Associations. For those who still may not have seen or read our wish list you can find this on our website at esg-gib.net. It includes 15 separate areas we continue to monitor and lobby on.

The first is on Climate Change and the need to engage the community more widely with issues relating to this major global challenge. We call for public presentations on Gibraltar’s approach in addressing this important issue, which primarily involves choices and use of energy, waste and recycling management, transport and more. It is true to think that with the internet and social media more people are better informed, but in order for every country, however big or small, to meet what will become increasingly harder goals and targets to reach over the next few decades, communities must be on-board for these measures to succeed. For this, good information and collaboration is essential.

So no surprise then that our next headings include energy, pollution, traffic and recycling. We make recommendations and discuss issues from our perspective having tracked these in Gibraltar for over a decade. Others are waste, sewage treatment, bunkering and shipping, conservation, mobile masts and awareness and planning. Here, another important fact to highlight is the on-going Environmental Action and Management Plan, which transposes Gibraltar’s “Environmental Charter” into action and therefore an extremely important document. We should remember that the environment is not a side or singular issue and it affects every aspect of our lives. Therefore the action plan and its aims and timelines are critical in achieving a better environment and thus, a better quality of life for all. Many are still unaware of this Plan which is published on the Dept of Environments website. As an NGO we monitor the plan and any delays and lobby for an update of the plan to be published that will reflect actual timings on major projects.

Finally we understand that many in our community continue to be concerned about the threat to health from the Oil Refinery and associated petrochemical industries and the lack of a robust, cross border epidemiological study and confirm these critical issues are also contained in our Wish List.

The ESG is also preparing questions to be tabled in Brussels via Gibraltar’s MEPs on such matters as well as the unresolved issue of Western Beach.

As reported in the media the ESG has met with experts regarding the issue of LNG. We presented our concerns and heard some reassurances. We now await publication of more reports as well as the detailed analysis that will come from the EIA that will be publicly available as it goes through the DPC process. The issue, for us, is still open.

Finally and back to Climate Change – We had mentioned the possibility of a rally planned for the end of this month in support of a global movement urging world leaders to stand firm and do the right thing on climate change. However, as this date now coincides with our own elections locally we have decided to postpone the rally for the time being. Any updates will be published. Thanks to those who have already expressed an interest in taking part.

Thanks for listening, for more info email us at esg@gibtelecom.net

ESG Press Release on LNG
1st October 2015

On the 14th of August, the ESG met with the Government to advise them of our concerns regarding the power station and the LNG situation and also regarding the more general community concerns on the non-availability of the promised safety reports. We were assured at that meeting, that our specific recommendations for best available technology (BAT) would be researched and implemented and would be included as a condition on any approval by the DPC. We were also assured that the safety reports were imminent – no more than two weeks away.

It is now 7 weeks since that meeting and the community is no nearer an understanding of the safety implications of LNG as a fuel and they can be forgiven for believing that their concerns are being ignored.

Until we can see that an independent and respected agency has issued a safety report that describes the LNG project as acceptable, the ESG, and the community in general, has to assume that the project is too ambitious and too close to residential areas, to be given the green light.
A smaller operation that catered only for our power station requirements (no bunkering possibilities) and was situated at the detached mole, would probably find it easier to obtain approval with the report-writers and also with the community and certainly with environmentalists.

With an election also imminent, the safety reports need to be aired in full so that this super-critical community project is transparent and the electorate informed.

We need to know.

Please contact Tom Scott at 58009259 for further info

ESG Press Release
Lloyds and LNG issues