In response to the Hong Kong SAR
Government’s initiative to develop bulk waste reduction facilities to tackle
Hong Kong’s waste disposal crisis, Green Island Cement Company Limited
(hereafter referred to as “the Client” or GIC) established a pilot demonstration
waste-to-energy facility (consisting of a Materials Recovery/Recycling Facility
(MRRF) and a Co-Combustion Plant) within the Green Island Cement Plant (GICP)
site at Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun. The
aims of the Co-Combustion Pilot Plant (CCPP) were to determine the technical
and economic issues associated with the operation of a MRRF as part of an
integrated waste management system; to demonstrate that the CCPP will meet the
requirements of the Guidance Note on the Best Practical Means for Incinerators (Municipal
Waste Incineration) (BPM 12/1 (08)) issued by the Environmental Protection
Department (EPD); and to obtain engineering data to refine the design of the
Co-Combustion Plant.
The construction and installation of the
CCPP was completed in February 2005 and commissioning tests were carried out in
April and July/August 2005 in order to demonstrate its performance. Continuous operation of the CCPP was
started in early October 2005.
During the operation period, the cumulative operating time of the facility
was 11 weeks and no more than 24 tonnes per day of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
were treated. After completion of
the tests and achieving the research objectives, the operation of pilot plant
was stopped on 17 December 2005.
As the design throughput of the CCPP is
less than 50 tonnes per day, it is not classified as a Designated Project (DP)
under Category G.3 of Part I Schedule 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) and therefore the construction and operation of the plant did
not require an Environmental Permit (EP).
However, the decommissioning of such municipal waste incinerator is
classified as a DP under Item 3 of Part II Schedule 2 of the EIAO and hence it requires an EP prior
to the decommissioning works.
A Project Profile (PP-315/2007) for the
decommissioning of the CCPP was submitted to EPD for application of an EIA
Study Brief under the EIAO and Study
Brief (ESB-164/2007) was issued on 7 June 2007 which sets out the scope of the
work for this EIA Study.
1.2
Objectives of the
EIA Study
The decommissioning of the CCPP involves
demolition of the existing structures and removal of used equipment and waste
materials as well as to clean up the CCPP site (hereafter referred to as the
Project).
This EIA Study is conducted in accordance
with the requirements of the EIA Study Brief (No. ESB-164/2007)
and the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process
(EIAO-TM). The objectives of
the EIA Study, as stated in the EIA Study Brief, are:
·
to
describe the Project and associated works together with the requirements for
carrying out the Project;
·
to
identify and describe elements of community and environment likely to be
affected by the Project, including natural and man-made environment and the
associated environmental constraints;
·
to
provide information on the consideration of alternative decommissioning
methods; to provide reasons for selecting the preferred method(s) and to
describe the part environmental factors played in the selection of preferred
method(s);
·
to
propose the provision of mitigation measures so as to minimize pollution,
environmental disturbance and nuisance during the decommissioning activities;
·
to
investigate the feasibility, practicability, effectiveness and implications of
the proposed mitigation measures;
·
to
identify, assess and specify methods, measures and standards, to be included in
the proposed decommissioning works which are necessary to mitigate these
environmental impacts and cumulative effects and reduce them to acceptable
levels; and
·
to design and specify environmental monitoring and audit requirements to
ensure the effective implementation of the recommended environmental protection
and pollution control measures.
The remainder of this EIA Report is
organised as follows:
·
Section
2 describes the Project
and the associated works together with the requirements for carrying out the
Project; provides information on the consideration of alternative demolition methodologies
and the reasons for selecting the preferred method(s) and describes the part
environmental factors played in the selection of preferred method(s);
·
Section
3 presents the air
quality assessment;
·
Section
4 presents the land
contamination assessment;
·
Section
5 presents the an
assessment of the waste management implications of the Project;
·
Section
6 presents the water
quality assessment;
·
Section
7 describes the
environmental monitoring and audit requirements during the decommissioning and
demolition of the CCPP; and
·
Section
8 summarises the
environmental outcomes associated with the decommissioning and demolition of
the CCPP.