August 31st, 2011:

31 August 2011

(2011/8/31新聞稿) 本港10個環保團體發表聯合聲明，指香港機場管理局擴建機場的諮詢粗疏，諮詢文件低估了環境影響的嚴重性，甚至與機管局的顧問報告毫不相干，容易誤導公眾，因此環團對這個諮詢「唔收貨」。團體要求機管局先提供整全的環境、社會和經濟的影響及成本代價，讓公眾掌握客觀的資料，再展開真正的公眾諮詢。

機管局行政總裁許漢忠原答允與環團會晤，今早卻「縮沙」爽約，改由機管局機場運行執行總監伍翹楚出席。環團要求局方須先完成及公開以下有關社會及環境代價的研究或資料，再進行另一輪公眾諮詢。

環團要求機管局在一個月內作出進行以上研究的承諾，並警告局方不可「偷雞」匆匆忙忙開展「環境影響評估」程序工作。環團警告，「倘機管局迴避環團的要求，我們會聯署要求機管局內的三名政府代表 (運輸及房屋局局長鄭汝樺、財經事務及庫務局局長陳家強、民航處處長羅崇文)和五名立法會議員 (何俊仁、何鍾泰、林健鋒、劉健儀及陳鑑林)，站在捍衛公眾健康、環境質素及社會代價的立場，要求暫緩為該規劃大綱作出決定。」

聯署環團：世界自然基金會 (香港分會)、長春社、香港海豚保育學會、香港地球之友、綠領行動、綠色和平、環保觸覺、綠色力量、健康空氣行動、爭氣行動。

我們要求機管局至少進行的研究如下：

• Ø 開放空域可行性及對航班升降影響之研究
• Ø 香港機場未來50年之長遠發展規劃及擴建方案研究
• Ø 要求訂出「還(生態補償)舊債」時間表 (機管局興建新機場時，承諾多項包括興建濕地等補償計劃，但當年答允的許多措施，至今仍未兌現)

氣候變化

• Ø 研究及提供擴建計劃的碳排放數據，當中務須包括飛機的排放資料，還有因擴建而引致陸上及海上客貨運運輸的溫室氣體排放數據；
• Ø 研究低排放航班的安排
• Ø 承諾三年內實行機場島內地勤運輸電氣化

保護白海豚

• Ø 限制高速船航線遠離白海豚棲息地可行性研究
• Ø 白海豚來往重要棲息地移動路線之研究
• Ø 研究香港西部水域基建發展對白海豚的累計影響

空氣質素

• Ø 開展東涌列作低排放區之可行性研究
• Ø 研究及公開因新增航班引致的海陸客貨運的空氣污染物排放數據
• Ø 研究及公開北大嶼山基建對區內及南屯門的累計空氣質素影響 (基建項目，除港珠澳大橋，還應包攬東涌新市鎮的擴建計劃)
• Ø 公佈為達更新後空氣質素指標而要削減的具體航班數字

環保團體重申並非反對香港的經濟發展，但強調機場擴建計劃的規模龐大，對社會及環境生態可造成不可彌補的害，基於可持續發展的考量，我們認為機管局更應提供更完整的訊息，讓公眾可以作出理性討論及判斷。

South China Morning Post – 31 August 2011

Green measures over building of Chek Lap Kok not good enough, says association

The Airport Authority has been told to make good on the environmental pledges it made when building the airport at Chek Lap Kok before asking the public to accept another huge project for a third runway.

The authority should “honour its cheques first before asking for more”, the Conservancy Association said, accusing the airport operator of not delivering satisfactorily the compensation it had promised for ecological losses during the original construction.

It said this failure underlined the need for the authority to disclose at earlier stage what compensation measures it planned to introduce if the third runway plan, involving 600 hectares of reclamation in key dolphin habitats, went ahead.

“They have to clearly demonstrate to the public that to what extent their measures could really protect the environment,” senior campaign officer Roy Ng Hei-man said.

Ng said the authority might consider starting the mitigation work even before construction on the HK$136.2 billion runway began.

Three days before the consultation on the project is due to end, the association said that in digging through the environmental impact assessment reports for the airport, produced in the 1990s, it had identified at least three pledges designed to compensate for the loss of Chek Lap Kok island, flattened for the airport.

It said checks on the sites showed none had been completed satisfactorily. In one, a waterfront site at Tai O where the authority had pledged to replant 11 hectares of mangrove for the loss of seven hectares on the island and in north Lantau, it found an estimated five hectares with one key species, common on the levelled island, growing poorly.

East of the Tung Chung new town where the authority promised to replant trees to compensate for removal of a 20-hectare secondary forest that was home to more than 101 bird species, the group found there were two dominant tree species, neither of which bore the right fruit to attract birds.

Parts of the site were just shrubs and weeds.

The association also said that to compensate for loss of a freshwater wetland, 16 other sites of similar characteristics were to have been included in country parks or designated as sites of special scientific interest. But so far, only one, in Sha Lo Tung, has been listed.

The Airport Authority said it had fulfilled its commitments to mangroves, secondary woodland and freshwater wetlands.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said designation of the 16 reserve sites were not pledges in relation to the airport development.

Ten groups will hold a joint press conference today to state their demands to the Airport Authority.

chifai.cheung@scmp.com