Hong Kong: Aviation Fuel Depot Rejected
By Mimi Lau, The Standard | Mar. 14, 2007
The Airport Authority Hong Kong has failed in its second attempt to lobby Hong Kong's Tuen Mun District Council to back its plan to build the world's biggest aviation fuel depot in the district - right next to a steel mill's high temperature smelter.
On March 13, councillors voted unanimously against the plan as protesters, including mill workers and members of various political parties, continued to vent their anger, claiming the project, if approved, would pose a tremendous threat to the lives of workers and residents in the area.
Presenting the council with a revamped environmental impact assessment report after the initial report was thrown out by the Court of Final Appeal last July, Chow Bing-sing, the Airport Authority Hong Kong's aviation logistics general manager, argued that Hong Kong needs a permanent fuel depot urgently as the temporary one at Sha Chau will not be able to cope with the rapid growth in air passenger and cargo traffic by 2009.
"We can't delay construction of the fuel depot any more," Chow told the council meeting attended by 36 members. He said the city is already facing tough competition from regional airports, which will threaten the development of the territory's economy.
If the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong SAR Government gives the green light for the depot, 12 giant fuel tanks would eventually be built in Tuen Mun Area 38 - located between Butterfly Beach and Lung Kwu Tan, and only about 28.5 meters away from Shiu Wing Steel Mill's smelter, which operates around the clock at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.
The public consultation period for the Airport Authority Hong Kong's revamped second environmental impact assessment report is due to end March 24. The first report was dismissed by the top court as it did not take into consideration the scenario of a catastrophic failure, in which aviation fuel would spill out of the tanks, possibly igniting a devastating explosion and sparking an inferno.
Neil Ketchell, a British risk assessment expert hired by the Airport Authority Hong Kong, however, told councillors he believed the chances of a 100 percent instantaneous fuel leakage were almost nil.
"This is one of the lowest hazard facilities I've ever assessed," he said.
A disastrous blast at Buncefield fuel depot in the United Kingdom in December 2005 caused the country's biggest peacetime blaze that raged for several days before being put out.
A report from an investigation into the accident has yet to be released.
Ketchell asserted that Hong Kong's permanent depot is safer than that of Buncefield's mixed fuel store where gasoline and diesel were said to be the main causes of the explosion.
He said the safety level for the proposed Tuen Mun depot is within an acceptable range - about 28.5 meters away from the steel mill - still better than the international standard of 15 meters required as the separation distance.
Councillor Chan Wan-sang said he was shocked by Ketchell's comments.
"As an academic, how can you assert the cause of the Buncefield explosion before they have even released an investigation report?" he asked.
Referring to Chow's argument that a permanent fuel depot at Tuen Mun is necessary for economic considerations, Chan said it is something the Airport Authority Hong Kong should have thought about since the old airport at Kai Tak was demolished. "It's your problem, why do people in Tuen Mun have to deal with it for you?" he asked.
At the meeting, Chow tried to prove that fuel is not highly flammable by playing a video clip of someone trying to light fuel with matches, but failing.
"Don't treat Tuen Mun people like children," said councillor Kwu Hon-keung after watching the clip.
Kwu said it was ridiculous for Chow to demonstrate lighting up aviation fuel with matches when everyone knows that fuel is highly flammable under high temperatures.
Another councillor, Yim Tin-sang, accused the Airport Authority Hong Kong of dodging the key problem by not addressing the potential dangers faced by the surrounding environment - a steel mill, an eco park and electricity power plants.
Council chairman and lawmaker Lau Wong-fat urged the Airport Authority Hong Kong to consider public opinion seriously before proceeding with the project.
The meeting ended with the 36 members passing a unanimous motion rejecting construction of the depot.
Earlier, more than 100 people, including Shiu Wing workers, residents and members of various political parties staged a noisy protest outside the Tuen Mun Government Offices, chanting slogans against the Airport Authority Hong Kong's second impact assessment report as well as construction of the depot.
A spokesman for the mill workers, Daniel Ho Ping-ki, presented a giant "report card" listing all the demerits of the second impact assessment report when Hong Kong's Director of Environmental Protection Anna Wong Sean-yee arrived to meet the district councillors.
"Please think of the 166 human lives working at the steel mill," Ho told the environmental chief as she left the meeting.