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The lawsuit is directed against the president of the public company Tersa and councilor of Barcelona Eloi Badía, as well as against the company’s operating manager
The Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office has submitted a complaint against the climate emergency councilor of the city council of the Catalan capital and president of the public company Tersa, Eloi Badía Casas, for ecological crime for the alleged emission of polluting particles of the treatment plant urban waste located in the town of Sant Adrià del Besos. The lawsuit, which has been admitted for processing by a court in Badalona and to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, is also directed against the operating manager of this company, FRG, but extending it to more people is not ruled out. The togado has requested data on the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere from the General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Generalitat since 2017, as well as a technical report on a contract aspect.
The complaint states that the two defendants, as maximum responsible for Tersa, “would have been carrying out and / or knowingly tolerating & rdquor; a series of practices “contrary to environmental regulations & rdquor; and that “they could be posing a serious risk to people living in the environment & rdquor; of the Energy Recovery Plant and for the environment. This company is owned by Barcelona Serveis Municipals (BSM) and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. The facilities came into operation in 1975. In 2007, the Generalitat granted it authorization to burn solid waste of up to three tons per hour.
The prosecution maintains that the company would not be carrying out the temperature control of flue gases from burning waste, which must not exceed 850 degrees during the two seconds, at least. The plant would be using, instead of a specific measurement, a calculation based on algorithms, with no record that the Generalitat, as the competent administration, has validated that formula to measure temperature. As a result of this lack of control, according to the complaint, the emission of polluting compounds with concentrations higher than those allowed would be taking place.
investigations
The investigation by the prosecution began in May 2018 as a result of the complaint filed by the representatives of the metropolitan neighborhood coordinator Airenet, which brings together several associations and entities from the towns of Barcelona, Sant Adrià del Besòs and Badalona and in which it was stated that the plant could be operating “with irregular practices” and very high emission levels of pollutants, especially dioxins and furans, would be generated. The investigations were entrusted to Seprona of the Civil Guard. In these facilities, details the public ministry, they are carried out “ordinarily & rdquor; processes of heat treatment o municipal waste incineration and power generation. It has three incineration lines and emits through its main chimney, it insists, “numerous particles and polluting gases during this combustion process.”
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In the investigative proceedings opened by the prosecution, the files of the temperatures of each of the three ovens have been incorporated and transmitted in real time to the Xarxa d’Emissions to the Atmosphere of Catalonia from 2015 to 2019. From these data, it can be deduced that “on numerous occasions the temperatures of the ovens have been lower than 850 degrees & rdquor ;, without it being possible to verify, according to the algorithmic calculation and which is not validated, that the required temperature levels were guaranteed in the regulations “with the serious risk that this could entail & rdquor ;.
The complaint reports that in March 2018 technicians from the Generalitat carried out an inspection for several days and that “various irregularities” were detected. For this reason, the managers of the company were required to automatically start up the auxiliary burners when the temperature of the combustion chamber dropped below 850 degrees, to block the supply whenever the aforementioned temperature was not reached inside the oven. and process some files correctly. The Barcelona City Council did not want to comment on the complaint as it was not aware of it.