Region of Murcia Proposes sanctions totaling 2.45 million euros against seven agricultural companies Campo de Cartagena’s decision regarding the use of illegal desalination plants is now sealed and pour in Mar Menor approximately 4.26 cubic hectometers of salt water In just over five years between 2012 and 2017.
It is worth remembering that the community reached a decision reluctantly and at the request of the TSJ’s March 2022 decision. procedure for claiming environmental liabilityLa Opinión de Murcia of the Prensa Ibérica group had access to the full technical report.
As explained in this report conducted by the Coastal Protection Area at the end of 2022, No measures are possible to repair the damage caused as the rejects have reached the Mar Menor and there is no longer a way to denitrify them. Therefore, what is done is to use. “a theoretical measure of compensation”By calculating how much the denitrification of the discharged brines would cost, this value was determined as 0.575 euros per cubic meter of brine.
The companies subject to sanctions are as follows: Ciky Oro, G’s Spain (subsidiary of multinational Gs Holding), Agriculture in Van, Concrete Mar Menor (its tenants are businessmen Bernardino Vidal and Juan Pedro López) and within the groupTogether with agricultural entrepreneurs Isidro Soto and Roque Madrid.
There is a detail of Ciky Oro in the files. One of the companies investigated in the ‘Topillo case’to activate Three illegal water desalination plants on different farms. The family business is estimated to have discharged 1.3 million cubic meters of nitrate-laced saltwater (equivalent to 555 Olympic swimming pools) between 2012 and 2017, for which a fine of around 800,000 euros is proposed.
For Vanda Agropecuaria proposes fine of more than 353,000 euros for spilling 615,000 cubic meters through the use of two desalination plants (containing more than 3,150,000 kilograms of nitrate). Isidro Soto’s company had a plant that rejected more than 27,000 cubic meters of brine containing more than 12,000 kilograms of nitrate, for which a fine of approximately 15,500 euros was imposed. According to the community report, the company Roque Madrid dumped approximately 120,000 cubic meters of waste and will be fined 68,800 euros.
In the case of Concretes Mar Menor the Community understands that: Benefited from a desalination plant that produced 32,776 cubic meters of water and just over 15,000 kilograms of nitrate. This company was fined 18 thousand 846 euros.
Also Inagroup company The person who discharges 160,000 cubic meters with 54,701 kilograms of nitrate will face a fine of 91,655 euros With its only illegal installation to desalinate water.
1.1 million for G’s Spain
The heaviest sanction will be given to the holding company G’s España, also investigated in the ‘Topillo case’, part of the Campo de Cartagena Society of Irrigation Experts. This group had two illegal desalination plants at one of its warehouses, from which it rejected nearly 2 million cubic meters containing 216,707 kilograms of nitrate. The community’s proposed fine for this business group is 1.1 million euros.
AG’s España, Ciky Oro and Vanda Agropecuaria were blamed for the number of rejections. A breach classified as ‘very serious’. The remainder of the operators, representing only 5% of nitrates contributed, are only liable for a ‘serious’ breach.
‘Severe’ impact on lagoon
In these reports, Community technicians conclude: The volume of waste from these desalination plants can account for 13 to 29 percent of the total nitrate reaching the Mar Menor each year.. The community acknowledges that such an amount contributes to a “serious impact on the Mar Menor” and significant environmental damage to the lagoon, which is classified as “acute”.
The volume of waste from these desalination plants can account for 13% to 29% of the total nitrate reaching the Mar Menor each year.
The report draws attention to the damage caused by all these spills to the environment. They passed through various avenues and reached the lagoon.Land seepage occurs when waste accumulates in ponds and through the brine pipeline leading to Albujón boulevard. Total, Illegal desalination plants sent 4.26 million cubic meters of brine into the lagoon (equivalent to approximately 1,716 Olympic swimming pools) filled with more than 1,000 tonnes of nitrate over a five-and-a-half-year period.
In the report sent to the General Directorate of Environment, the 2017 Comprehensive Report of the Scientific Advisory Board was taken into account when determining the percentage of nitrate created by these illegal facilities. The annual amount of nitrate that could enter the Mar Menor varied between 700 and 1,600 tonnes.that is, the 205 tons annually discharged by sanctioned companies represents a percentage of between 13 and 29 percent.
These Community sanctions proposals In March 2022, TSJ instructed the Community to initiate the procedure for claiming environmental liability against these seven companies or businessmen in the agricultural sector. Until that decision, the Ministry of Environment argued that it had no authority on this issue.
After this, Companies are expected to be given hearing permission Thus, they will be able to object to different sanction proposals.
Report blames them for Nacra’s decline
While measuring the environmental damage caused by the discharges of the companies to be sanctioned, The report prepared by the Coastal Protection Area and sent to the General Directorate of Environment, cites various studies by the Scientific Advisory Committee and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). Based on these documents, the following conclusion was reached: The introduction of nitrates affected “the entire lagoon and therefore all individuals and habitats in the affected area.”.
In this affectation emphasizes his situation Nacraendangered speciesIt is in “a suboptimal ecological state as a result of saline water from agricultural activities, among other problems”, which could mean “species extinction given the current critical situation”.
In fact, the IEO report states the following regarding the population of the nacras on the Mar Menor: “A sharp decline in population was observed in 2017, probably related to the effects of the eutrophic crisis that the lagoon suffered in 2016.», a decline he estimates to be more than 50 percent. Regarding the timescale of damage, the report refers once again to the IEO, which in its 2020 analysis commented on the development of surface chlorophyll concentration at the Mar Menor in the 1980s, which did not exceed 1 mg/m3. Maximum values of 20 mg/m3 began to be found, which is more than 100 times the normal values.
The report suggests that this chlorophyll concentration is “directly related to the increase in nutrients.” The temporary damage of nitrates “is very long in time due to their high permanence in the ecosystem”». Regarding the extent of damage, Coastal Protected Area technicians estimate that the activity of desalination plants affected an area of 135 square kilometers of the lagoon.
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