The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS) has rejected the appeals presented against a resolution of the Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife which sentenced several businessmen to pay 185 million euros for the illegal extraction of aggregates in ravines in the Tenerife municipality of Güímar.
In January 2021, the Provincial Court replaced the obligation to restore the natural environment with compensation after declaring the impossibility of restoring the ecological balance, and finally the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeals, thus ratifying the sentence, according to the newspaper. The day.
Those responsible for the compensation are the businessmen Antonio Plasencia (in prison for the Las Teresitas case), José Enrique Morales and Pedro Sicilia, sentenced in January 2016 to restore the area damaged for crimes against natural resources and the environment.
The Provincial Court sent its decision to the Government of the Canary Islands, the Tenerife Island Water Council and the private prosecution so that they could make a detailed evaluation of the damages caused.
He also pointed out that the absolute impossibility of restitution in nature of the lands affected by the extractions allowed the application of article 18 of the Judiciary Law and replaced it with mandatory compensation for each of the quarries subject to illegal exploitation.
To evaluate the amount of compensation, the court order indicates that it cannot be other than that defined in the 2016 ruling.
This ruling indicates that the actions carried out by some of the accused in the respective aggregate deposits took place on a large surface of the bed of several ravines in the southwestern area of the Güímar Valley, within the hydrographic basin of the ravine of Badajoz, which is publicly owned and one of the hydraulic channels with the highest volume of haulage in Tenerife.
The Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mariano Hernández Zapata (PP), plans to appear at a press conference this Monday to assess the scope of this sentence.
The destruction of a rich fertile valley in Tenerife
The Güímar ravines became an open-air mine in the 1990s. In an eloquent scar marked deeply on the environment. Tons of aggregate were extracted from this territory without control or respect for the environment. Specifically, there were five businessmen who used and abused the land: Antonio Plasencia in the Badajoz quarry, José Enrique Morales in Baden II and Pedro Sicilia in Extracsa. The Prosecutor’s Office also included Fulgencio Díaz in Agache, now deceased, and Francisco Javier del Rosario in Llanos II, who has pleaded not guilty, so the trial will continue as it affects only him. The others have assumed their guilt and are willing to face million-dollar payments and prison sentences. And they have also done so from minute zero of the oral hearing that opened a few days ago in the Provincial Court.
Each one operated in this period independently but simultaneously and without legal coverage, as they did not have all the enabling titles to carry out this activity. During the first years, the land was classified as rustic and not developable and the only movement of earth was allowed, as long as the disappearance of plants was avoided and if not, they had to be replaced.
Regarding the quarries, the need to establish a schedule for their exploitation and a maximum limit of one hectare was established. The truth is that they reached thousands of square meters. The experts established the cost of replacing the environmental damage caused at 171 million and the need to fill more than 22 million cubic meters of aggregates. For all these reasons, the Prosecutor’s Office considered that crimes against natural resources and the environment had been committed.
In the 2005 General Plan, the land was categorized as Rural Mining Protection in the area delimited by the Island Plan. The characteristic use was extractive-mining and the damaged spaces were required to be restored.
Dangers of huge sinkholes
But the farms also invaded enclaves dedicated to cultivation and residential use, sometimes bordering on tragedy due to not respecting the minimum distances. The technique consisted of digging huge holes deeper than permitted, which generated insecurity, dust and visual impact and, of course, serious and progressive environmental deterioration. The ravines did not fare better and one of the most significant effects has been the drainage of the channels, which are affected in a total of 4.5 linear kilometers. Something similar happened with aquifers.
The most imminent risk, however, is that derived from the instability of the terrain. Proof and consequence of this are the very important localized collapses and landslides, especially due to the rains. The nearby roads are also in a high-risk situation. The regeneration of these spaces is therefore essential and immediate, according to all experts. “Each of the quarries contributes in a similar way to the impact on the hydraulic functioning of the ravines, and each one causes a very significant negative effect that multiplies the action of the other quarries,” the Prosecutor’s Office report indicates.
The adverse effects focus on the soil and subsoil, landscape, atmosphere, noise and biodiversity. In the first case, because excavations have become a risk for infrastructure, such as wells that can become contaminated. One of the most affected elements is the landscape. To verify this, you only need to observe this environment, which appears as a succession of enormous and deep scars, which make it mistaken for natural accidents.
Residents of the area complain about the emission of suspended dust from the extraction plants. No less is the noise. This ravine has almost three hundred endemisms, some in danger of extinction, and around 160 invertebrates, a group of which have been declared of special interest. However, the effect of atmospheric pollution caused by suspended dust and noise without control measures has had a direct impact that is difficult to avoid.
