Advisory Council on the Environment

Agenda Item 1 : Confirmation of Minutes of 60th Meeting held on 2 March 1999

2. Members noted that Dr. Bill Barron was on sick leave and had not yet indicated to the Secretariat whether the part of the draft minutes concerning Agenda Item 3 was agreeable to him. As Members had not proposed any amendments, the draft minutes of the 60^th meeting of the ACE were confirmed, subject to comments, if any, from Dr. Barron at a later stage.

3. The Chairman wished Dr. Barron a speedy recovery. He requested Prof. Peter Hills to convey this Council's regard to Dr. Barron.

[Post-meeting note : Dr. Barron has confirmed that he has no comments on the minutes of the 60^th meeting.]

Para. 6 : Invitation to Transport Bureau / Transport Department to send a representative to sit on ACE/EIA Subcommittee

4. Noting that Transport Bureau (TB) was still considering the invitation, a Member said he hoped to receive TB's favourable reply soon.

5. Members noted that the Housing Authority (HA) supported the use of low flush toilets and was currently expanding its approved lists of products to include 7.5 litres cisterns and their associated pans.

7. Members noted that, as advised by the Water Supplies Department, about 636 million litres of water had been leaking out of the water distribution system every day (i.e. 232 million m³/year). This represented about 22% of the total amount of water purchased from Guangdong and collected locally from the various water catchment areas. On the basis of the Short Run Marginal Cost at 1997/98 price level, the financial implication of the present leakage problem was approximately $136 million per annum (i.e. 2.5% of WSD's total operating cost for supplying water to the territory in 1997/98).

[Post-meeting note : To reduce the problem of water leakage and burst of watermains, WSD will launch a comprehensive and systematic programme to replace and rehabilitate aged watermains, with priorities given to those watermains which are most susceptible to leakage and bursting. The first stage of the programme will start in 2000 for rehabilitating and replacing 350 km of aged watermains for completion by 2006.]

8. Members noted that the Constitutional Affairs Bureau had written to the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) to seek their consent and that of the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to receive the ACE delegation on 26 - 27 April 1999. Members would be informed of HKMAO's response in due course.

9. After the last meeting, EPD had sent each Member a copy of the speech.

10. Members noted that the Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau would take follow up actions.

11. The Chairman reminded Members of the visit to the Shatin Water Treatment Plant, which was scheduled for the morning of 17 April 1999.

12. The Chairman thanked AD(Con), AFD for conveying his concern about fishing activities inside Marine Parks to AFD. He said that the AFD officer responsible for the subject had explained to him in writing the criteria for issuing fishing permits and the enforcement actions AFD had taken against unauthorised fishing and destructive fishing practices inside Marine Parks. A copy of AFD's letter had been sent to Members for reference.

13. The EIA Subcommittee Chairman reported that the EIA Subcommittee had considered two EIA reports at its meeting on 1 March 1999, namely the "Planning and Engineering Feasibility Study for Development near Choi Wan Road and Jordan Valley" and "Tai Po Development - Formation and Servicing of Area 12 (Part) and 39 Pak Shek Kok, Supplementary Environmental Study". He said the EIA Subcommittee recommended that :

15. The Chairman welcomed P(WS), EPD and S(WS)5, EPD to the meeting. P(WS), EPD briefed Members on the paper.

22. The Chairman welcomed AD(TFB), Lands D and PLCO(TFB), Lands D to the meeting. AD(TFB), Lands D briefed Members on the efforts of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Flytipping Control (IWG) in controlling flytipping activities in the past six months.

Lands D

That Member

Lands Dept.

Lands D.

35. DS(E), PELB thanked Members for participating in the forums. He told Members that PELB had already gone through and considered all the comments made by participants at the forum or in the response forms and had come up with the proposed way forward. All who had participated in the forums would be informed of the Administration's way forward in writing shortly. Members noted that four working groups would be set up initially, each focussing on one of the following aspects, namely (i) conservation and the use of natural environment, (ii) improvement of the urban environment, (iii) better use of resources within Hong Kong, and (iv) education and public awareness. A briefing session would be held on 13 April 1999 at the University of Hong Kong for the chairmen and members of the four Working Groups to discuss how the four Working Groups should operate. DS(E), PELB supplemented that the four Working Groups would have to work very hard and meet frequently from April to June in order to complete their discussions within that period and report their recommendations to another environmental forum which is scheduled for the coming September.

Tentative Schedule of Work for ACE in 1999

37. Members noted the Schedule which was tabled. A Member informed Members that FoE had published a document on "Restructuring Hong Kong's Power Sector and Maintaining Environmental Priorities" and offered to present the document to this Council in May/June. The presentation would dovetail with the two power companies' presentations on their DSM Plans.

That Member

38. The EIA Subcommittee Chairman informed Members that the EIA Subcommittee and the Hong Kong Institute of EIA would jointly organize a forum on the EIA process in Hong Kong on the morning of 10 April 1999. He said that invitations had been sent to all the key stakeholders in the EIA process, including PELB, EPD, key project proponents, consultants and ACE Members. As far as ACE was concerned, quite a few Members had already indicated that they would attend the forum. The Chairman apologised for not being able to attend the forum since he had to chair a seminar that morning. He however encouraged Members to attend the forum as far as possible.

39. In response to the Chairman's query, DS(E), PELB said that the Administration was still reviewing the scope and extent of reclamation in Green Island, taking into account development needs and environmental concern.

40. The Chairman said that he had received a copy of WWF's letter to SPEL reporting about deliberate burning at Sha Lo Tung and the extensive use of the site by off-road vehicle enthusiasts. He urged the Administration to raise the issue with relevant organisations, such as the Four-wheel Drive Association, with a view to soliciting their co-operation in not organising rallies in Sha Lo Tung for members. A Member said that this case had demonstrated the ineffectiveness of using zoning alone to protect private land of ecological value, if proper management and control was not in place. She hoped that the Working Group on Conservation and Use of Natural Resources and the Wetland Compensation Study would recommend a more effective control mechanism to protect and conserve land of ecological value in the long term.

(Post-meeting Note : The correspondence between the WWF and PELB on this issue were copied to Members for reference after the meeting.)

PELB

42. A Member asked about the progress of the LPG taxi trial scheme and government's timetable for introducing LPG as a motor fuel. DS(E), PELB said that the Financial Secretary had indicated in the Budget Speech that he did not intend to impose any duty on LPG. The outstanding issues to be resolved in introducing LPG taxis on a territory-wide basis were the need to identify adequate LPG filling stations and agree with the oil companies on the timetable for making available these filling stations. The Chairman asked and DS(E), PELB said that the Administration intended to require all newly-licensed taxis to use LPG by end of 2000 and have the whole taxi fleet switched to LPG by 2005.

44. The Chairman said that he would be out of town on 19 April 1999, which was scheduled for the April ACE meeting. As the Easter holidays were in early April and the Beijing visit in late April, there was not much room for rescheduling a meeting in April. Noting that the three EIA reports which the ACE had to consider before April were not regarded as controversial by the EIA Subcommittee and could therefore be endorsed by Members through circulation of paper, and there was no particular urgency to consider the other papers which were originally scheduled for the April meeting, the Chairman proposed and Members agreed that the April meeting be cancelled. Meanwhile, the Secretariat would seek Members' endorsement of the three EIA reports by sending the EIA Subcommittee Report to them for consideration.

45. The next meeting would be held on 31 May 1999.