Valongo: Renewal of landfill permit should be rigorous and transparent

A association Major Journey warned today that “it is not up to Recivalongo to announce in advance” the renewal of the landfill permit in Sobrado, scheduled for December 1, recalling that the procedure “should be rigorous, transparent and subject to public scrutiny”.

The company that manages the landfill in Sobrado, in Valongo, revealed on Wednesday to Lusa that the Auto de Investoria à landfill proves that it complies with the Single Environmental Title (TUA), there are only a few issues that need to be improved for the license to be renewed on December 1.

The association, which since 2019 advocates the closure of the operation, wrote on its Facebook page that “it is not for Recivalongo to announce in advance the outcome of a procedure that should be rigorous, transparent and subject to public scrutiny.”.

According to Recivalongo, the report concluded that, “during the survey, it was found that the establishment complies with the project licensed by the TUA, complying with the general conditions defined, as well as with the legal and regulatory conditions”.

“ Nor do we accept that the correction requirements and plans for odors and leachates are devalued. For those who support the denounced impacts, these matters require verifiable answers and concrete results ", contrasts the Association Main Day (AJP).

Arguing that “the trust of the population does not recover with reports nor with more promises of improvement”, the association ensures that it will maintain “the complaints concerning the alleged violation of the Municipal Master Plan and the alleged environmental infringements”, which is why it requires “its complete clarification by the competent authorities and the clearance of responsibilities, respecting the work of the courts and without wanting to anticipate judicial decisions”.

In this context, the JPA requires the “Government and the competent authorities transparency [in] the full publication of previous reports, as well as new monitoring analyses, the conditions imposed, the results of monitoring and the grounds for any decision on the continuity of exploitation”.

Recivalongo has 60 working days to correct the anomalies detected in the survey review and, to Lusa, said it was the “cleaning of half-cane rainwaters, [of] reconfiguring temporary land barriers within the landfill to prevent the mixing of any leached water with rainwaters and [of] repair of lintels by the hydrocarbon separator”.

“ Our position remains, we demand the immediate closure of the landfill of Sobrado, by the legally applicable mechanisms, with environmental protection and accountability of those of right ", concludes the AJP.

The landfill in Sobrado has been contested since 2019 by the population and local authorities, who accuse the management of the company of landfills of “environmental crime”, causing “a nauseous smell” in the air and, through the “slip of leachates, pollute the water and land of the parish” of the municipality of Valongo, in the district of Porto.