The mayor of Candelaria and president of the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (Fecam), María Concepción Brito (PSOE), stated this Friday that since she became aware of the spills in the Güímar industrial estate “the only thing” she has done is work for solve this problem.
A mayor and three former mayors in Tenerife, prosecuted for their inaction in the face of constant toxic discharges in the Valle de Güímar industrial estate
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Brito has made these statements after this Friday a court in Güímar, in Tenerife, has issued an indictment against her, one of her predecessors, Gumersindo García (PSOE), and the former councilors of Güímar Carmen Luisa Castro (PP) and de Arafo José Juan Lemes (PP and CC) for the alleged commission of two ongoing crimes against the environment and prevarication.
These crimes, according to the judicial order, were caused by an alleged inaction before the discharge of wastewater into the sea from the Güímar industrial estate, mixed with urban sewage.
Brito, who has chaired a meeting of the Fecam in Los Llanos de Aridane, has told journalists that although he respects the judicial decisions, “I do not share this one”, and has specified that they are preparing both a reform and an appeal.
He has insisted that he has always worked to solve the problem of discharges and has recalled that in some supra-municipal decisions, in addition to the municipalities, the Island Water Council and the Deputy Ministry of the Environment are involved.
As an example of his concern about this issue of discharges, Brito has pointed out that the problem has been solved with the purification of industrial waters and with the authorization of discharges.
“We will continue fighting,” said the mayor, in response to journalists.
The order indicates that the aforementioned mayors, “who were owners of the infrastructure of the polygon, consciously and voluntarily, without apparent justification, omitted since July 2013 the administrative actions to which they were imperatively obliged in the control and legalization of discharges of wastewater to the marine environment.
And it adds that the discharge was continuous and uncontrolled from all the “companies of the largest industrial estate in Tenerife and the El Socorro and La Viuda urbanizations, without purifying, treating, or legalizing, which in the receiving marine environment originated at least in 2017, a serious risk to water quality, the balance of natural systems and people’s health, directly violating the applicable environmental regulations”.
