TNAG-1726-FCO40-2439-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 335

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-3 February 1988

Construction of landfill sites and the demolition of incinerators

709

7. MR. CHUNG asked (in Cantonese): With reference to the reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare on the question of pollution caused by the Lai Chi Kok Incineration Plant on 6 November 1985, will Government inform this Council:

(a) what progress has been made on the construction of controlled tips in the New

Territories to replace existing incinerators in the Territory; and

(b) when the incinerators at Lai Chi Kok and Kennedy Town will be demolished and what improvements have been made to minimise the pollution caused by these incinerators in the meantime?

SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE: Sir, the incineration plants at Lai Chi Kok and Kennedy Town will be shut down as soon as new facilities are available to dispose of waste which is now being burned there. Under the Government's waste disposal strategy, these new facilities will be refuse transfer stations located in urban areas, from which waste will be transported in bulk to three large landfill sites in the New Territories.

Detailed design for the first of the landfills, located at Nim Wan in western New Territories has just begun. Site preparation will begin in early 1989, and the landfill should begin to receive waste in late 1990.

A study of the outline design and environmental impact of the second landfill site in north-east New Territories is almost complete. Preparatory works should begin in early 1991, with disposal of waste at the site beginning in late 1993.

The third landfill site will be located at Junk Bay to the north-east of Fat Tong Chau (Junk Island). Work is in progress on the preliminary engineering design and landfilling is expected to commence in late 1994.

The existing landfill sites at Shuen Wan, Pillar Point Valley and Junk Bay will continue to be operated until the three new facilities are commissioned.

It is intended that the Kennedy Town incinerator should be closed down in 1992 when a refuse transfer station is commissioned in the western part of Hong Kong Island. In the meantime, electrostatic precipitators have been installed at the plant. These electrostatic precipitators significantly reduce the amount of dust emitted, but do not remove gaseous and fine particulate pollution.

Electrostatic precipitators are also being installed at Lai Chi Kok plant ‘A'. When this plant is recommissioned in October 1988, the 'B' plant will be closed down permanently. Emissions from the Lai Chi Kok plant will therefore continue to represent less than half of those previously produced by the fully operational plant. Plant 'A' itself will be shut down in late 1990 when the first refuse transfer station at Kowloon Bay is commissioned.