The High Court of the Basque Country annuls the environmental authorization granted by the Government to the Bergara incinerator
- The City Council of Bergara, the Ecologistas en Acción group and the two residents of Bergara filed an appeal against the government’s granting of an environmental permit to Valogreene in April 2022. The City Council emphasizes that the Court has justified it by finding that the decisions taken by the Government are not in accordance with the law. Ecologists denounced pyrolysis as a contagious procedure similar to incineration.
The matter of the limestone production plant that Valogreen wanted to install in Bergara has reached a final verdict after the scourge created three years ago: The Supreme Court of the Basque Country on Wednesday revoked the environmental authorization granted by the government to the company. The City Council of Bergara announced the verdict in a brief statement. In the note, the City Council underlines that the Court has justified it by appealing, together with the Ecologistas en Acción group and the two neighbors of Bergara, the environmental permit granted by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government to the company Valogreen Paper in April 2022.
The City Council explains that the court has declared "contrary to law" the following two decisions of the Government in this matter: on the one hand, the resolution granting the integrated environmental authorization to the project and, on the other hand, the decision to reject the appeal filed against this resolution. The City Council described as "very positive" the resolution of the Superior Court of the Basque Country, which "has questioned the procedures followed by the Basque Government in the granting of the joint environmental permit".
In addition, the City Council of Bergara reports that the Court has sanctioned the Government to pay the costs of the trial. The Lake now has 30 days to appeal the ruling of the Superior Court of the Basque Country to the Spanish Supreme Court. In the absence of an appeal within this period, the judgment will be final and Valogreen will have to close the project of the plant that he wanted to open in the Larramendi industrial zone of Bergara.
Project created as an alternative to the Zaldibar landfill
Before the disaster at the Zaldibar landfill in February 2020, paper waste was transported to the site. After its closure, Valogreen proposed as an alternative to the treatment of paper waste the plant that he wanted to open in Bergara. Although the City Council gave its consent to the project in July 2021, at the beginning of November it revoked the authorization, considering that the intentions initially presented by the company did not correspond to what was indicated.
Valogreen proposed to treat paper waste in this plant by pyrolysis, which led to controversy. In fact, according to the main actors working on the topic of environment and waste treatment, such as the Larramendi Respite platform, Zero Waste in Europe or Greenpeace, pyrolysis incineration is a similar treatment that generates similar pollution. LARA spoke with Piter Encinas of Ecologistas en Acción in May 2022, who has also been working on the Larramendi Respite platform that was created against the platform’s Bergarako project. According to him, the city council changed its opinion about the project because the report presented by the company contained "lies".
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