The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, guaranteed yesterday that the island institution “complies with the law” in the treatment of waste in the Environmental Complex of Tenerife and described the position of the Arico City Council as “electoralist” when denouncing before the Public Prosecutor’s Office Environment and Urban Planning possible illegal dumping without due prior treatment. Meanwhile, the mayor of Ariquero, Sebastián Martín, insisted that the technical report commissioned by the City Council points to “serious irregularities” in waste management. “The report says that in less than an hour 20 trucks entered to dump directly without being treated”, to conclude that “these reports show clear violations of environmental legislation and there may also be an alleged environmental crime”, detailed the alderman.
In addition to placing the case in the hands of the Environment and Urban Planning Prosecutor, the City Council has forwarded the complaint to the General Directorate for the Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands and to the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment.
The councilor for Sustainable Development and the Fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo, Javier Rodríguez Medina, explained to this newspaper that each truck carries a code based on its load, some go directly to the spill cells and others go to the facility “all in one”, designed to recover a part of the waste that has not been separated at source.
“The Vice Ministry of the Environment (department in charge of controlling environmental complexes) knows this and we have it permanently quantified,” he stressed. In addition, the counselor reproached the Arico government group for its opposition to the installation of recycling industries in the environmental complex after recalling that the Cabildo has put out to tender plots for the implementation of recycling industries.
For her part, the counselor of the Canary Islands Coalition in the Cabildo Blanca Pérez announced yesterday that her party will request an extraordinary plenary session in the island institution to clarify the situation, understanding that the complaint by the Arico City Council “denotes that there are serious breaches in the integrated environmental authorization and that will have to be clarified”.
The CC counselor, who appeared before the press yesterday at the gates of the environmental complex together with the mayor of Arico and the Councilor for the Economy, Víctor García, indicated that “it can be seen that they are throwing away construction waste and mattresses without any type of treatment.” and pointed to the Cabildo, “by breaking a negative record in terms of waste recovery.”
