Green groups call for veto of San Tin project EIA

Ten green groups on Wednesday made a final appeal to an advisory council to veto an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a project which aims to build a new technology hub in the northern part of Hong Kong, arguing it is the worst wetland assessment since EIA regulations came into place in 1998. The Advisory Council on the Environment is due to discuss the EIA for the San Tin Technopole project next Monday. Afterwards, it will submit its suggestions to the Environmental Protection Department (EPD). Among the 10 environmental groups involved in the campaign is the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. Wong Suet-mei, the group’s senior conservation officer, said green groups have compared this EIA to similar ones conducted in the past two decades and feel this one was lacking. “In terms of different items, including the ecological baseline survey, and preparations of the mitigation plan and the information that are published to the public, not only [did the EIA] not do enough, but they even missed some of the items,” she said. “For example, they missed two species of breeding birds and also they did not share the actual number of black-faced spoonbills that they counted in their survey.” Wong said the EIA violated at least 35 statutory requirements and omitted at least 27 crucial data points. She said the EIA also missed out on a comprehensive wetland management plan to prove that compensating measures were in place to recover the wetland loss. She mentioned in the past, the government would resubmit the assessment in the event of significant replanning or changes in the development area. However, this time, the EIA was still being processed, despite the need to fill in an additional 90 hectares of fish pond, she noted. The groups anticipated someone would file a judicial review in the coming months if the EIA gets approved. The proposed development would affect about 247 hectares of wetland in the area.