The Government of the Canary Islands will seal the illegal landfill located in the Casa Pedro Alonso area, in the municipality of Granadilla de Abona. The action will take place in an area of 135,222 square meters and has a budget of 519,143 euros, included in the amount of 1,200,000 euros in which the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Fight against Climate Change also includes the execution of similar works in the illegal El Sobradillo landfill, located in the Gran Canaria municipality of Gáldar.
Casa Pedro Alonso is included among the 47 inert waste dumps – scrap yards, construction remains – in the Canary Islands that make up the list of places involved in the infringement procedure opened by the European Commission against Spain. The intervention, which will be carried out by the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment (Acpmn), dependent on the Ecological Transition, has the co-financing of the Feder Canarias Operational Program, as well as the prior drafting of the works execution projects. This list also includes a second illegal landfill in Granadilla de Abona, located on the TF-64 highway (a road that connects the South Highway and El Médano). It is located “below the gas station.”
The regional councilor responsible for the area, José Antonio Valbuena, explains that both landfills have a restoration procedure initiated or previously resolved by the Agency itself, as the body responsible for this type of file. This inter-administrative consortium will entrust the actions to the public company Gestión y Planning Territorial y Medioambiental SA (Gesplan), also part of the aforementioned regional council.
Infringement
For his part, the director of the Agency, Ángel Fariña, confirms that it has been found that carrying out the waste dumping activity at these sites constitutes an offense typified in article 39 of Law 17/1999, of 29 January, of Residuos de Canarias, proceeding to the initiation and instruction of the corresponding procedure of replacement of the altered physical reality in exercise of the powers attributed to it in this area. The regional Executive explains that these actions are included in the important effort being made by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands to fulfill the commitment assumed by the Government of the Canary Islands to solve the procedure of 2015/2192 infringement opened by the European Union to Spain in 2008.
More than 20 landfills
In this way, the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment has worked over the last year on more than 20 illegal landfills in the Canary Islands for their sealing, closure and restoration of the landscape. Granadilla de Abona is a municipality in which illegal rubble dumps, preferentially, have been a constant since the end of the last century.
The most notable case from Granada was the one located in the Llanos de Ifara area, in the vicinity of the TF-636 highway, which connects the towns of San Isidro and Chimiche, through Abona Avenue. Its closure, sealing and restoration was carried out in an environment that also houses an important archaeological zone, declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) on October 28.
