His Cartagena Parque company alleges in court that it is now asking for a radioactivity report, but the neighbors demand that the hazardous waste ponds be emptied and sealed due to the health risk
The Cartagena Parque company, owned by the well-known promoter of Fuente Álamo Tomás Olivo, rejected this Friday morning in a Cartagena court the accusations of having committed an offense against the environment for the delay in the decontamination of the old Spanish land Zinc (Zinsa) in Torreciega. In a statement as the investigated party, the legal representative of the company justified the delay in starting the restoration of the soil -affected by levels of heavy metals that exceed the legal limit by millions of times- by not having yet approved its project by the Autonomous Community.
This was confirmed to LA VERDAD by sources familiar with this case, who indicated that in an appearance before the Investigating Court 5, the company’s representative, Belén Lescure, recalled that the company presented in June to the Ministry of the Environment the technical project that it requested. And he added that, recently (as this newspaper advanced), the Community urged to complement this project with a report on the natural radioactivity emitted by waste from zinc processing. This is a requirement demanded by the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN).
Lescure, who only answered questions from the substitute judge and the company’s lawyer (the Prosecutor’s Office did not attend the act), emphasized that Cartagena Parque has complied with all the requirements of the regional administration. Among them, he mentioned the fencing of the farm to prevent the entry of unauthorized persons. He also pointed out that the company does not know precisely the land it owns affected by the declaration of contaminated soil made in 2008 by the Community. He argued that the company has encountered problems with the registration in the Land Registry of the plots that it acquired at auction in 2018.
In fact, the company has filed a lawsuit in a court in Murcia for the auction to be annulled and to get rid of the land. He insists that he bought the land free of charges, for 1.5 million euros, and not with an obligation to pay about 4 million to Iberdrola for invoices that Zinsa left pending.
Faced with this position, the Neighborhood Association of Torreciega, which exercises the private prosecution, defended that the company continues to breach its obligations as the owner of land where there is hazardous waste for health and the environment. The lawyer for this group, José Manuel Muñoz Ortín, affirmed that Cartagena Parque has only presented a waste characterization study to the Community and not a technical decontamination project. It was based on the fact that in an official response to the company, after consulting it before bidding on the land, the Ministry made it clear that, among other things, the project should contain a study of alternatives, a general description of the work and the methods to be used. apply to reduce present and future pollution and a schedule of work and work plans.
«None of that appears, as required by the regulations, in the documentation presented by Cartagena Parque in the Community. Therefore, the company is failing to comply with its obligations and the request made by the Community more than two years ago,” Muñoz warned. The lawyer stressed that the Ministry’s response was provided by the company itself to the court, within its appeal against the adoption of precautionary decontamination measures.
With the latter, the lawyer referred to what is most urgent for the neighbors: that Cartagena Park, or failing that, the Community, carry out the emptying of waste and the sealing of the ponds, to put an end to the dispersion of particles toxic to the Torreciega neighborhood, the Cabezo Beaza industrial estate and other possible areas. According to sources familiar with the file, the rafts occupy about a quarter of the farm.
Seprona confirms the “unacceptable risk”
Muñoz recalled that the deposits are very close to the houses and that, according to a report from the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard, the abandonment of the rafts for 14 years poses an unacceptable risk to the natural environment. and for the health of people, especially children. Among other things, the concentrations of arsenic exceed the legal limit by up to five million times and that of cadmium and cadmium, by 531,000.
The lawyer for the neighborhood association recalled that the Ministry itself reported Cartagena Parque to the Prosecutor’s Office for an alleged crime of disobedience by not having emptied and covered the rafts. Environment, in fact, has started the subsidiary execution procedure for these tasks, which remain undated, for which it has reserved 500,000 euros in its budgets this year. Then, it will pass the expenses to the merchant.
In any case, Muñoz told LA VERDAD that the association is considering filing a civil liability lawsuit against Cartagena Parque, accompanied by a study on the entry of polluting particles into Torreciega houses and another on the high rate of cancer in the area. The first is being prepared by the scientist from the University of Limoges and the Seneca Foundation of the Region of Murcia, José Matías Peñas Castejón. The denunciations of this Cartagena soil scientist brought the Torreciega problem to light, just as it has been done in the last five years with similar problems of risk to public health and the environment in other areas of Cartagena and La Unión, such as those of Peñarroya in Santa Lucía and the Sierra Minera.
Before the representative of Cartagena Park, a Seprona agent gave a statement, who ratified the conclusions of the report on the contamination of the ponds, the death of protected birds by contact with the residues contained in them and the danger of collapse of these swamps. Seprona speaks of “unacceptable risk” and possible “irreversible” damage to the health of minors.
Pending new reports
Sources from the investigated company declined to hold demonstrations, as the matter was in the hands of justice. And sources from the Ministry of the Environment, directed by Antonio Luengo, indicated that in the coming days they will send the court the report requested by it on the cost and the method that could be used in emptying the rafts. They also recalled that it has requested another decontamination project from the Maquinasa company, owner of the minority part of the land.
Regarding this, the Prosecutor’s Office has rejected the company’s claim to file the case and the separate piece of precautionary measures opened by the head of the court, Ignacio Munítiz. Sources from the Prosecutor’s Office pointed out that it is necessary to analyze the documentation sent by the Environment and the results of the complementary sampling requested by the court to Seprona, to know the possible carryover of contamination to surface water, groundwater and the port of Cartagena. For the Prosecutor’s Office, the situation of the ponds and the surrounding soil is an environmental and health “ticking bomb”.
Citizen protest by Torreciega and El Hondón
During the judicial declaration, representatives of the Torreciega Neighborhood Association and the Cartagena Platform for People Affected by Heavy Metals, including Teodosio Romero (president of the first group) and Fulgencio Sánchez, demonstrated with banners at the gates of the Palace of Justice. One of them read: «But can’t you see that Torreciega is dying? The toxic activity of Zinsa continues on land, water and air and the neighbors throw fire. The protest was supported by the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Cartagena and Comarca and by the PSOE; present through its general secretary in Cartagena, Manuel Torres.
The residents also demanded that the Autonomous Community also give priority to the decontamination of the old Potash and Derivatives land in El Hondón, with the approval of the project presented by the Ercros business group. At the request of the CSN, the Environment Department has also requested a radioactivity study from this company. The platform also demands that the City Council, through the government team, put these issues as a matter of maximum relevance due to their impact on the health of thousands of people.
The lands of El Hondón and Zinsa occupy large farms at the entrances to the city of Cartagena by the Murcia highway and the La Puebla highway, respectively. Potasas closed its manure and fertilizer factory in 2001 and Zinsa closed its factory in 2008.
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