The town council of the Majorcan municipality of Sineu has paralyzed the processing of the construction of the large poultry farm planned two kilometers from the town for some 750,000 laying hens – which would produce some 156 million eggs per year – and which, as Greenpeace has reported, will be would become the most polluting in the entire Spanish territory. The facilities also plan to consume more than 61,000 m3/year of water – the equivalent of about 25 Olympic swimming pools – in a town that, in itself, is under serious pressure on its water resources. The project has generated an avalanche of criticism from neighbors, administrations and environmental entities.
Last Thursday, the City Council agreed to suspend, for one year, the granting and admission for processing of all types of authorizations and planning licenses linked to intensive livestock activities in the scope of all the rural land of the municipality, as published this Saturday by the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB). This is a measure that de facto stops the processing of the controversial macro-farm, promoted by the company Avícola Son Perot.
The city council considers, in relation to the planning of rural land and, more specifically, with intensive livestock activities, that the current Subsidiary Standards (NNSS) of the municipality, approved in 1990, contain an “insufficient and obsolete” regulation, especially regarding which refers to the measures to protect the landscape and the environment, to the mobility generated, as well as with regard to the conditions of land use and buildings, which “are not adapted to current needs” of the town.
In this sense, the municipal corporation sees it necessary to carry out an exhaustive study of the carrying capacity that the rural land of Sineu can assume, both to convert existing livestock activities into intensive ones and to implement new ones, as well as the conditions of reconversion or implementation of said activities. From there, once the conclusions of this study are obtained, the city council will proceed to modify the current NNSS.
As stated in the BOIB publication, the City Council has decided to suspend the licenses and authorizations with the aim of preventing, during this analysis phase prior to the modification, situations from being consolidated that “are contrary to the modified planning once it is definitively approved.” .
As the mayor of Sineu, Bertomeu Mulet, stated in statements to elDiario.es, agricultural activity “must be promoted, but adapted to the territory, with a smaller number of animals and that respects the environment.” In the case of the macrofarm, he complains that it is an infrastructure of 750,000 chickens, some of them free-range, which “would destroy the entire oak forest that surrounds the farm.” The mayor also points out the odors that the activity would generate, the pressure that the facilities would exert on water resources, the contamination of aquifers and the problems that would occur on the road that leads to the land with the increase. of heavy traffic in the surroundings of the urban center.
The documents relating to the project specifically contemplate the execution of up to ten agricultural buildings for chickens – three of 2,041 m2 each for rearing, four of 5,256 m2 each for raising chickens on the ground and another three of 3,343 m2. for free-range chickens—in addition to a classification center and packaging warehouse, a porch for waste containers, a warehouse next to cisterns for drinking water, a 14,000 square meter manure dump, several waste water pits, a prefabricated pond of leachate, sanitary fords, a well and various floors for propane tanks.
Last September, the Consell de Mallorca issued an unfavorable report on this project, alleging, among other reasons, that the proposal did not make reference to certain municipal and regional regulations that are mandatory. The insular institution considers that the project presented does not “make any reference to the current municipal planning” nor to the “procedure of activities subject to integrated environmental authorization (AAI)”, nor to the documentation required by the Environmental Impact Assessment (AIA). ).
The company’s intention is to gradually close the facilities it has on the outskirts of the municipality of Llucmajor and move the activity to Sineu to adapt it, as stated in its project, to which elDiario.es has had access, “a “new market needs, complying with current regulations and with the latest technological advances to guarantee the well-being of the animals, optimize egg production and minimize the possible environmental impact of the activity.”
From the environmental entities, Greenpeace ignited the debate by issuing a statement in which it denounced that, based on the calculations that the NGO has carried out, the direct consumption of water by the macrofarm, without taking into account that necessary to produce food for chickens, would be more than 61,000 m3/year, a third of the estimated consumption for Sineu. For environmentalists, the project would aggravate the situation of the municipality, which has not been able to consume its water for more than a decade due to nitrate contamination.
The entity complains, along these lines, that the project lacks specific calculations to show the impacts it would have on the environment. “If we compare it with other industrial poultry farms in operation, only with regard to emissions of ammonia, a toxic gas with harmful effects on the environment and people’s health, this industrial farm would become the largest poultry farm in the world. “the most polluting corral in the country,” added the NGO, who warn of the “pharaonic dimensions” of the project: ten industrial warehouses to which the other support facilities would be added, as well as the manure heaps and pits to store the huge quantities of manure. that would be generated by such a number of animals.
For its part, Avícola Son Perot announced on September 30 that its legal team will evaluate the publications in the media or social networks and the actions carried out on the macrofarm with the objective of determining the “opportune actions” aimed at “protecting its integrity and reputation”. The company expressed its “concern” over the alleged publication of “inaccurate data, incorrect information and unfounded hoaxes” related to this infrastructure.
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