The brief presented by Airenet’s lawyers, Francesc Jufresa, Ferran Grasas and Carlos Claret, remember that from the beginning of the investigation they revealed that Tersa’s pollutant emissions data and the temperature control data from the burning of waste “denoted a clear and very serious contravention of environmental regulations,” emitting elements ” highly harmful to people’s health”, such as dioxins, furans and mercuryamong others.
In this sense, the lawyers They emphasize that now the Civil Guard report reinforces their accusations, since in that opinion the agents maintain that “it is not possible to give reliability that the combustion processes are taking place in such a way as to ensure the destruction of pollutants such as dioxins and furans.” And, specifically, due to the “aberrant” anomalies. detected in relation to temperatures in the burning of garbage and that include records of incineration below the minimum limit of 850 degrees. This possibility would be normal as long as five minutes of continuous burning below 850 degrees are not exceeded, although, according to the Civil Guard, there are months with “more than 1,000 minutes below.” of that temperature. This circumstance, in the opinion of the expert agents, represents “a emission risk” of contaminants that can cause “detriment to people’s health”.
The investigating judge, in response to the prosecution’s request for evidence, assured in July 2023 that they should wait for the result of the expert test now carried out by the Civil Guard in order to have evidence. “regarding the criminal action or not of the Administration”, which, he stressed, “it should not be forgotten that it has been validating all the reports submitted” from Tersa, so “it cannot be ruled out that, in the event that the police reports prove the possible commission of crimes” by those investigated (the former president of Tersa, former councilor and currently deputy Eloi Badia and by the head of the plant’s operation) “an investigation by the competent public administration could be proposed.”
Investigated and witnesses
The accusation carried out by Airenet has now taken the gauntlet and requires the declaration as a defendant of the director of Environmental Qualitat, Xavier Guinart, who once appeared before the judge as a witness. The lawyers of this association remind that, since the Administration “cannot be responsible in criminal terms,” it must “proceed to investigate specific people.” at the service of it and, in this case, of Guinart. When he testified, the Generalitat official assured that Tersa guaranteed the cremation conditions in accordance with the regulations, not having noticed any irregularity, according to the accusation document.
Airenet, in addition, requests the summons as a witness of Mireia Boya, current director of the General Directorate of Environmental Quality, and Catalina Cerdà, head of the legal advice area in the field of the environment, who was the one who reported on May 8, 2023, the alleged errors in the emissions and temperature data. Likewise, the accusation asks that the judge require documentation from Tersa about the company director who has the function of supervising compliance with the law regarding the environment, as well as to identify the plant personnel whose mission is a series of work related to emissions from the incinerator. It also requires that the person who legally represents the company be cited as being investigated.
“Accredits the complaints”
The president of Airenet, Silvina Frucella, considers that the opinion of the Civil Guard “accredits the complaints” of the entity and trusts that it will contribute to accelerating the cause. “Six years ago we started and our main complaint was that Tersa manipulated the temperatures, camouflaging the real ones, and it was a risk for the people. This report proves it,” says the head of the association.
Related news
Frucella believes there may have been “a double control” on the temperature in the plant, a key value to decide if it adjusts to the parameters of pollution or exceeds them. “No plant could be managed at 10,000 ºC but, if it were real that that temperature was measured, it would have to stop. But it has not stopped nor has it exploded,” he emphasizes.
Airenet suspects that “there are real temperatures that are not those that Tersa reports to the Generalitat.” “There is a real situation that is hiddenwhich is very serious in a public and polluting company, which must be transparent“says Frucella. The entity criticizes what it calls “falsehoods” in Tersa’s activity balances and “a way of working deliberate“which, in his opinion, “is protected by several administrations “The information about the aberrant temperatures was in the hands of the Generalitat and it has never been acted upon,” Frucella reproaches.