- On 18 February the Environment Minister, Iñaki Arriola, appeared at the meeting of the Permanent Representative. The Department of the Environment has informed the media of the sanctions imposed on CAV landfills by the Autonomous Executive. Pouring is not the most punishable.
Verter has only been sentenced to imprisonment for attempted homicide in 2012. This is a case of temporary storage of land contaminated with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), as the 2007 Integrated Environmental Authorisation did not allow it to do so.
The Basque Government imposed a penalty of EUR 33,000 and measures for economic recovery.
The reader will recall that in 2015 it was learned from the courts that the company that left the PCBs was the one that was condemned by the judgment, and that in this context it was known that these extremely toxic substances, which are very harmful to health, were taken to the Zaldibar dump. That was not detected by the Environmental Department's inspection.
It's not the hardest hit dump.
Since 2008, the Environment Department has imposed 13 sanctions on CAV landfills, all of which are described as serious. In total, these 13 convictions amounted to a total fine of EUR 707,001. The slightest penalty has been EUR 27,000, the most serious EUR 120,000, and the most serious EUR 120,000. The only one receiving Verter is one of the lightest.