Under the law, all unused landfills should be closed and sealed since 2008. Ekologistak Martxan appeared in the Basque Parliament to demand compliance with the law: on 12 November he participated in the Committee on Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability (see video here). The environmental group recalls that landfills that are not used in the CCS continue to pollute water: “This is not just an environmental problem, it is also a public health issue.” To go beyond the good intentions shown by all political parties, he has called for this matter to be included in the budgets and for a working table to be set up “for the investigation, inventory, timing and sealing of all landfills not used in the CAPV”.

The environmental group says that Europe has pushed the Spanish state in the same direction: “On 9 February 2024, we learned that the European Commission is going to bring the Spanish State to the Court of Justice for failure to comply with European directives on waste and that there is a possibility of imposing significant economic sanctions. Although it is an issue against Spain, water and waste management is shared between the Spanish State and the autonomous communities”.

In many of these landfills there is asbestos and lindane.

Ekologistak Martxan stresses that many of these landfills have accumulated hazardous waste: asbestos, lindane (HCH)… the latter is, for example, located in the Etxe-uli landfill in Santurtzi, in the Lemoiz landfill in Jata, in Artxanda and Santo Domingo in Bilbao and in Gardelegi in Vitoria. The members of Ekologistak Martxan point out that the consequence is that the water is contaminated: “The worst is the Ibaizabal estuary of the Nervión, as can be seen in Azti’s reports.” But in addition to these substances, he added, there are many other substances that are contaminating the water.

12,467 potentially contaminated soils in the CAPV

Ekologistak Martxan explains that there is a useful working tool to help close and seal landfills: Soil inventory supporting or supporting potentially polluting soil activities or installations. It contains 12,467 potentially contaminated CAPV soils. Most, 10,910 soils are industrial and 1,557 soils are landfills. Of these landfills, 718 are in Bizkaia, 531 in Gipuzkoa and 308 in Álava.

The soils listed in this inventory are “potentially” contaminated soils. Ekologistak Martxan explained that, according to the Administration, it is not necessary to characterise or designate the land until it is used for other purposes. But according to Ekologistak Martxan, “it is necessary to characterize those lands, and it is necessary that the contaminated lands be declared thus, sealed, sealed and given away”. He pointed out that it is compulsory to do so since 2008, and that is why Europe is going to take Spain to court.

Request Ihobe to post the technical information for each landfill

Regarding this soil inventory, Ekologistak Martxan points out that much information has already been received from each landfill. That Ihobe has this data collection in tokens but is not available to everyone: “When we asked Ihobe for that information, the time has passed to receive the answer. In fact, since we did not receive an answer on the first occasion, he received a complaint from the Ararteko and so we got them.” They call for these tokens to be made available to everyone on the Internet, as they give a lot of data on this.

For example, in these Ihobe tiles the old Jata landfill appears: It occupies 18,000 hectares of Lemoiz, belonging to the Urrutia family, it is said that it is “uncontrolled without licence”, where there are “non-hazardous” residues, but below is shown “lindane” among the residues described, as well as steel powder and ash and chemicals (painting, solvent, varnishes…). The fire shows that there is a frequent occurrence and that there are no pipelines for water, groundwater, rainwater catchment, or leaching water samples. In the “Impact Description” section, it reads: “Below the landfill are the Artadi stream and the Urbieta pond (Itoiz Pond)”. And it doesn't have a written plan to close this landfill.