THE Environmental Protection Department is proposing tough new marine dumping measures - including a 10,000 per cent increase in penalties for violation of the outdated Dumping At Sea Ordinance (DASO).
Plans for the new regulations have already been presented to Legislative Councillors, but the EPD has taken a tougher stance, pushing for a record $100,000 fine against a company convicted of illegal dumping.
The EPD proposes penalties of up to $500,000 and two years in jail for repeat offenders of harbour dumping ordinances. Current codes, modelled on old United Kingdom marine dumping measures, limit penalties to $5,000 fines.
However, EPD critics claim the measures are long overdue and will be ineffective, since reclamation and dumping by the world's largest dredging fleet has already irrevocably altered the harbour.
''For major contractors, the fines for years have been a joke. They clearly served no deterrent at all,'' said Lisa Hopkinson of Friends of the Earth.
Aside from fines against Universal Dockyard, penalties for those convicted of illegal dumping have been held to $5,000. Universal, among the world's largest marine engineering firms and a major airport contractor, was fined $100,000 in April for dumpingviolations dating back to March 1992 - the 13th time it had been penalised.
A Sunday Morning Post investigation of DASO enforcement revealed a pattern of light penalties, even for repeated violators. Last year, Luen Cheong Tai Construction Company of Sha Tin was convicted of dumping 750 cubic metres of mud near Cheung Chau in violation of licence conditions.