Source: Designing Hong Kong
Today we will find out whether the Advisory Committee on the Environment (ACE) has refused, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Hong Kong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HKZMB). The case has been passed to the full ACE meeting and it will need to decide on it today, 12 October, 2009.
The HKZMB assessment will be the acid test: Is ACE an effective environmental watchdog or is it a council of politicians who can be trusted not to rock the bridge?
The project raises obvious environmental concerns: Air quality around Tung Chung is already bad and will get worse once North Lantau is opened up to road traffic from the mainland: 50,000 toll paying vehicles a day are needed to pay back the loans.
The Government, worried that someone will challenge the project on grounds that it will not meet Air Quality Objectives (AQO) when it goes ahead, now claims in their Environmental Impact Assessment that the project will NOT have ANY adverse effect on air quality at all. Unless only electric cars and bicycles will be allowed to use the bridge, that can simply not be true!
Highways Department keeps air quality data secret
The Highways Department knows what impact the bridge will have on air quality in North Lantau: Their assessment report for the HKZMB reveals that it has had its consultants do air quality modeling - but the resulting data is kept secret.
The Highways Department appears to imply that, as a result of ongoing efforts by regional governments, air quality will have improved sufficiently by 2015 so that when the bridge is expected to open, air quality including the pollution generated by the new traffic will be within the current AQOs.
Highways Department ignores the law
Highways Department has obviously forgotten the kind of assessment the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) requires.
The Court of Final Appeal made clear in the Shiu Wing Steel case concerning an aviation fuel tank farm that it is not enough for the Government to say, "Look, you don't need to worry about this project's impact on the environment. We've already taken care of it. Trust us."
