Updated: ‘No whimper’ when plant burned gas in past years

(Adds ministry statement) Gas flaring at the Marsascala recycling plant happened in the past and no one in authority bothered to flag the issue, according to scientist Edward Mallia. Writing in Times of Malta, Dr Mallia describes as “sheer hypocrisy” the Nationalist Party’s outcry on the matter when this came from “people who elected to be silent in fairly similar situations in the past”. He was reacting to criticism by PN exponents over the closure of the family park in Marsascala that had been prompted by the burning of an acidic gas in the adjacent recycling facility. Last month Dr Mallia led a team of experts who recommended the temporary closure of the park after an investigation found that a fault in the recycling plant led to the burning of hydrogen sulphide gas. Dr Mallia explains that the act of burning causes the sulphur in hydrogen sulphide to form the much less dangerous compound, sulphur dioxide. This is dispersed in “small but not negligible” quantities in the air around Sant’Antnin. “This is by no means the first time that biogas has been flared since the start of operations in 2010, but no one in authority – least of all the now-vociferous PN ex-ministers – raised...