Two Enemalta employees were suspended and their manager put on forced leave following a massive spill of aviation fuel at the corporation's Wied Dalam plant in Birżebbuġa, which was kept under wraps for over a week.

Around 31 tons of aviation fuel, estimated to cost around €28,216 were spilled into the Birżebbuġa valley from an underground storage facility there during a fuel transfer from another installation not too far from the valley.

The corporation said in a statement yesterday evening that the staff manning the plant immediately initiated standard operating procedures to contain the spill and recover the fuel, and that there is no longer a risk of further spillage.

However, when contacted by the Times, hydrologist Marco Cremona says contamination of water in these cases is gauged in milligrams, which means that despite the clean-up, a spill of this scale presents a huge potential for contamination of the aquifer, particularly considering that the facility is underground.

On this point, Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter said the corporation did not have an assessment of the environmental damage caused by the spill but that it would form part of an investigation that was launched yesterday.

The news of the spill was kept from the corporation's top management for the entire week and the chairman himself found out only yesterday afternoon, after the manager filed a detailed report of the whole incident. The information was relayed to Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, who ordered the suspension of the employees and that Enemalta informs the pertinent authorities.

The manager, Mr Tranter said, has not been suspended but was sent home and asked to prepare a detailed report on why it took him a week to report the matter further up the ladder.

"The manager, who had nothing to do with the actual spill, followed the corporation's procedure but felt that he should first investigate the matter thoroughly and establish exactly what happened before reporting the matter. I view that as a serious shortcoming, which is why I have asked for this report," he said.

The investigation will include an assessment of the environmental damage caused to the area and the possible remedial actions. "But besides investigation, I'm sure that the authorities concerned will be directing us in this respect," he said. The Malta Resources Authority, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Water Services Corporation were contacted.

Mr Cremona said that coming on the periphery of the aquifer, the spill could potentially also be pushed out to sea, in Pretty Bay or the rest of the coast. As for the contamination of the water, Mr Cremona would not be drawn into saying how much time it could take to clear the contamination but said that authorities would need to flush the aquifer until the last milligrams of contamination are removed.