Imogen Calderwood
MIJAS Town Hall is suing one of Spain’s leading construction companies for €13 million for the failure of its waste treatment plant.
Despite promises to recycle 30% of waste, the company FCC’s Entrerrios plant turned around just 3.7% of waste since being built 15 years ago.
The rest was simply buried in a ‘landfill scenario’ and left to become a ‘toxic dump’, claims the town hall.
“The economic and environmental cost here is huge,” council refuse boss Jose Maria Moreno told the Olive Press.
“Had the plant worked properly, it would have buried just 54% of waste. But it was not a treatment plant, it was a dump.
“All the waste that could have been recycled was just buried along with everything else.”
The town hall also alleges that FCC has taken no responsibility for clean-up operations, leaving toxic liquids abandoned onsite.
The contract with FCC was signed in 1994 by the PSOE party, but the plant was shut down in September 2011 after suspicions were raised.
It is claimed that between 1996 and 2011, at least a dozen reports were received by the PSOE Mijas government warning about the irregular practices in the plant.
The town hall has taken steps to make the site safe in the interim, but now it is determined to make FCC take responsibility.
Moreno added: “We are trying to defend the public’s interest, as it hasn’t been defended up until now.
After years of hard work we have all the documents we need, and we are extremely hopeful of victory.”
The Olive Press failed to get a comment from the company, which is based in Madrid.
