(Some previous warning:
A careful reading should reveal the state of Environmental Law in Galicia, in contrast, for instance, with steps taken by George W. Bush administration about Alcoa´s Aluminium Plants in US; also the Francoist hands on which Enviromental Evaluations depend. It’s possible to skip the technical part, it is most of it “copy and paste ”from the English Wikipedia, and find what I’m seeking for, serious legal advice about the lack of Environmental Studies for the installing of great companies, like Alcoa, here, in Galicia, which converts the area in a cheap polluted industrial colony.
About the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Alcoa Inespal plant in A Coruña, I’ve only found in the Galician Official Gazette, DOGA, an “ad,” that appears clearly by clicking In the link, which announces the “public exposure” of the “data”, it isn’t clear exactly where, at some “local offices,” in case someone wanted to file a complaint. There aren’t any data publicly exposed in the DOGA, as I think there should. Of the guys that signed, one that announcement, and the other some kind of “renewal” one was denounced for prevarication the following year for authorizing an immense landfill in a natural space, claiming that it was an “improvement”. The other was an old Francoist celebrity. The data that environmentalists complain about in the two press reports I quote, refer to the same substances prohibited by George W. Bush Administration in the Alcoa plant in Rockland.
On the other hand, although the plant in A Coruña threatens to close, no one in Galicia claims for an investment of 5,000 million euros (that’s the equivalent of the 330 million dollars investment that, according to the English Wikipedia, rarely wrong about their info, was demanded by the George W. Bush administration in US from the single Alcoa plant in Rockland, Texas) or a natural park, as was achieved in Iceland by means of the protests of environmentalists, led by the mother of the singer Bjork and the singer Bjork herself, with an extension of 1/5 of the national territory
Alcoa is something more than a multinational, that rating is somewhat short. The owner, a certain Richard Mellon Skaife, belongs, like Trump, to a family of mega-ultra-super-extra millionaires, there is a recent article by Naomi Klein that mentions him, also on Znet, and has influenced and financed the most conservative republican policies in the USA for half a century or more. There is also a recent book about that, from an American research journalist, Jane Mayer “Dark Money,” downloadable on Amazon.
I prefer not to make any guess about the taxes Alcoa pays to the Spanish Treasury; because they pollute in A Coruña (and Lugo, and Aviles), but, since taxes are not transferred, they pay taxes in Madrid. I suppose that their numbers must be as clear as their environmental Impact Assesments.
The blog was updated on January, 8th, Tuesday, 2019, 8:15 pm, with some info about the neglect of the Alcoa plants in Galicia for EU regulations. Alcoa plant at A Coruña, which was installed in General Franco’s time, in 1961, has been breaking the https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/ALL/?uri=CELEX:31985L0337(Post-scriptum i) and Post-scriptum ii) for twenty two (22) YEARS.
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-kavanaugh-and-the-rule-of-pampered-princelings/
About the Environmental Impact Assessment by the Galician Government (Xunta de Galicia) of the Alcoa Inespal S.A. plants in A Coruña.
I find in the page of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition,
Ministry of Environment (Spain) – Wikipedia
Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
this report about the Alcoa Inespal S.A. Aluminium Plant in A Coruña: http://www.prtr-es.es/Informes/fichacomplejo.aspx?Id_Complejo=1312 . It’s impossible to add a direct link to the tab “emissions”, but I ask you to read it carefully..
In the Wikipedia (I’ve used, essentially, in a quick search, the English Wikipedia) I find this information (I employ the Spanish terms used in the report, and , next, the English correspondence):
- Monóxido de carbono: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide
- Dióxido de carbono: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide
- NoX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx
- NO2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_dioxide
- “Perfluorocarburos” : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorocarbon
- Óxido de Sulfuro: according to the English Wikipedia this includes the (Spanish) “dióxido de sulfuro” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_oxide), about which I link, also from the English Wikipedia, the article about Alcoa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoa, which details, in the section “Environmental Record” that George W. Bush administration forced the company to virtually eliminate it from its producing plant in Rockdale, Texas; the ninth case in which the Bush administration obliged industrial plants using fossils fuels, like coal, natural gas or petrol for electrical generation ( I’m not quite sure about the meaning of this, but I link the article “Fosil fuel power station,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_station, and mark that according to information of La Voz de Galicia, about Alcoa, a gas pipeline was constructed (by the Galician Government) for the plant at San Cibrán: https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/amp/noticia/carballo/cerceda/2015/02/10/gas-permitira-alcoa-producir-alumina-25-barato/0003_201502G10P32992.htm) enforcing the observance of the Federal Clean Air Act,Clean Air Act (United States) – Wikipedia
- Hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos: https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidrocarburo_aromático_polic%C3%ADclico
- Fluor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_fluoride
- HF (i): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_fluoride
- HF (2): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid
- Particulates (redirected from PM10):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates ; about this there is also a report from the WHO, the World Health Organization: the World Health Organization about “Air Quality” (Particulates (PM10): https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health
I refuse to make any reference to the part about “emissions into the water.”
In the local press I find that
- Ecologists complain about the high concentrations of “dióxido de sulfuro” (please look again the link about the Bush administration and the Alcoa plant in Texas) in the area : https://galicia.economiadigital.es/politica-y-sociedad/arco-iris-denuncia-que-alcoa-y-repsol-someten-a-los-coruneses-a-niveles-ilegales-de-dioxido-de-azufre_373140_102.html
- And that Alcoa Inespal S.A. has been sanctioned ten times because of pollution issues (for a total amount of 3 millions de Euros, to compare with the 330 million$ it was enforced to invest by Bush in US, see once more the link above, and the state of things in Iceland, where an ecologist riot, to which local celebrities like Bjork were added, obtained with their protests the creation of a National Park that occupies 1/5 of the national territory: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/us/politics/american-companies-still-make-aluminum-in-iceland.html?fbclid=IwAR2ZRkk_jUNvyWDrgU7MegbBQZehu6LPP01MnPtf5XuDxGG6xhPmVACLOvs
About the Environmental Impact Assesments mandatory, I guess, for starting any business with an influence on the environment, I just find in the erratic “Diario Oficial de Galicia” https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diario_Oficial_de_Galicia,
this “announcement,” about some “public exposition of the “data” (in local offices)” (instead of any “data publicly exposed,” in the Diario), emitted by the “Dirección Xeral de Calidade e Aviación Ambiental” ( https://cmatv.xunta.gal/organizacion/c/CMAOT_SX_de_Calidade_e_Avaliacion_Ambiental) and the “Delegación Provincial da Consellería de Medio Ambiente e Desenvolvemento Sostible da Coruña”(http://www.coruna-virtual.com/jefatura-territorial-conselleria-medio-ambiente-territorio-e-infraestructuras/3-2301-431-2301.htm): https: //www.xunta.gal/dog/Publicados/2007/20070515/Anuncio15226_gl.pdf
The guy who signs it, Joaquín Lucas Buergo del Río, Director xeral de Calidade e Avaliacion Ambiental, General Manager of Quality and Environmental Assesment during the bi-partit Government of the Galician Socialist Party and the Galician Nationalist Bloc, confronted prevarication charges one year after: https://www.elprogreso.es/articulo/galicia/un-ex-alto-cargo-del-bipartito-acusado-de-prevaricacion/20100608202000194446.html, and allowed to install a gigantic dumping-site declaring it was “derived from the improvement of the renovation project of a natural area” (guess you can translate it better) : https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/santiago/2008/03/14/xunta-autoriza-gran-vertedero-escasos-siete-kilometros-centro/0003_6651446.htm
The signer of other “Environmental Resolutions” about the Alcoa plants, not just at A Coruña, but in other parts of Galician territory : https://www.xunta.gal/dog/Publicados/2013/20130613/AnuncioCA02-300513-0005_gl.pdf , Justo de Benito Basanta, had already held important posts during the Regional Presidency of former Franco’s minister, Manuel Fraga: https://www.farodevigo.es/galicia/2009/05/19/pp-echa-mano-ex-altos-cargos-fraga-nueva-direccion-sogama/328592.html
I wonder if you could study the case and find if there is any break of European Environmental Regulations.
(Sent to Franziska Keller [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96734/SKA_KELLER/home], and other places. Asking for advice).
Post-Scriptum (i):
I’ve recently found a summary of the status of the legal issue of Environmental Impact Assessments in Galicia, the Spanish State and the European Union in this book, result of a master’s degree directed, at the University of A Coruña, by Xose Lois Armesto Barbeito about the subject, and written by J.F. Alonso Picón, with the collaboration of José Alberto de Santiago Meijide:
https://ruc.udc.es/dspace/bitstream/handle/2183/13598/CC-044.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
The book (“Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental de Galicia,” that is: “Environmental Impact Assessments in Galicia,” in English) is automatically downloaded simply clicking in the link above.
Post-Scriptum (ii):
I have been reading the book of J.F. Alonso Picón and making some internet research to update the blog and to provide some more information to Deputy Keller, if she ever contacts the UDNG and this blog. The results, which I post without the links, are shocking:
In the book of J.F. Alonso Picón, appears (page 42) that according to European regulations dated in 1985, (Directive 85/337 / EEC, DOCE number L 175 of 05/07/85, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/ALL/?uri=CELEX:31985L0337 ,which is currently in force, in its preamble) “The “authorization “of public or private projects susceptible to having significant impacts on the environment should not be granted until the prior evaluation of the significant effects that these projects (may) have on the environment is carried out. “(Annex II of the Directive includes, in its section iii), among the projects affected by this regulation, “metal processing”).
All the Galician Environmental Legislation was promulgated between the years 91 and 95 (see section 7 of J.F. Alonso Picón’s book index). Picon’s book, edited by Torculo, in A Coruña, has a legal deposit in 1998, and there is also a law on the subject in 2002.
The plant in A Coruña was bought by Alcoa from Inespal in 1998, in a way that, as is usual in Galicia (click my blog about “The Sale of Galician Savings Banks”, in the menu that appears at the right of this page) had a negative balance for the state, although it had been operating since Franco’s time. In 2011 it celebrated its 50th anniversary, that is, since 1961. However, the announcement of the “request for integrated environmental authorization” for the plant in A Coruña was not made until April 23, 2007.
That is to say, the Alcoa plant in A Coruña had not been complying with European regulations from 1985 to 2007, twenty-two years (22), I think. And, in reality, it would continue to fail to comply with European regulations, because a previous “Environmental Impact Assessment” was never done.
Actually, the governments of Emilio Perez Touriño (2005-2009) and Alberte Nuñez Feyjoo (2009-present) are , in my opinion, guilty of corrupt practice for making an environmental assessment, and a “renewal” (which probably do not meet either the requirements of the book of Picón, result of Chair Armesto Barbeito’s master (See chapters 4, 5 and 6 of the Index)) “a posteriori.” (Xose Lois Armesto Barbeito, retired last year, has been the Rector of the University of A Coruña since 2011, leading a progressive and nationalist team,
La Universidad coruñesa apuesta por la continuidad y elige a Armesto nuevo rector ) . (He is the guy with spectacles and a beard at the left of the pic).
The idea of checking the state of the “Environmental Impact Assessments” comes from Xose Manuel Casais, an (old) activist in Quilmas against the Stolt Sea Farms’ projects here, and the agent of ADEGA in this area,https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/carballo/2006/09/10/vecinos-carnota-unen-fuerzas-contra-stolt-farm/0003_5095887.htm (“Asociación pola Defensa Ecoloxica de Galicia,” an Association for the Ecological Defense of Galicia, http://www.adega.gal/portada.php).
The idea of looking for an accurate English correspondence in the Google Translator for Galician “Avaliación de Impacto Ambiental” (“Environmental Impact Assessment,” all along the blog) and writing an easy to read intro with (just a few) of the (most of them crazy) comments posted at Yolanda Diaz Perez (United Left Deputy for A Coruña in the Spanish Congress) public Facebook page, comes from Flavia, the bar waitress at the Ezaro-66, in Ezaro, Dumbria, also with some issues.
Alcoa celebrated its 50th anniversary in A Coruña in 2011 (“La Opinión”,19/09/2011) : https://www.laopinioncoruna.es/economia/2011/09/10/alcoa-celebra-50-aniversario-factoria-aluminio-coruna/531036.html
In a file about the plant of Alcoa plant in A Coruña, published in “expansion.com,” that quotes information from (c) Axesor, appears, among other data, “June/2nd/1998” as its “date of creation”: http://www.expansion.com/directorio-empresas/alcoa-inespal-sl_82612_C33_28.html
The deficit sale of Inespal (that included all of its 13 factories, also the plant of a Coruña) in 1998 was made during José María Aznar Lopez’s term of office: https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/amp/noticia/economia/2016/05/24/aznar-entrego-inespal-ayudas-tarifa-electrica/0003_201605G24P32992.htm
Google search results for “Inespal sale, Alcoa, 1998, Aznar” seem to never have an end (something like the Never Ending Tour Bob Dylan is engaged in since June, 7th, 1988) , (here is a summary of the (well known, published) terms of the deal) : https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/economia/2018/10/28/hombre-decidio-cerrar-alcoa/0003_201810G28P33991.htm
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