GuraSOS has been able to access this information on the contamination of Arkaitzerreka at the 5th Court of Donostia-San Sebastián. Having been able to participate in the procedure opened by the Court, with a bond of EUR 1,500. The court is investigating, to this end, the Civil Guard and the Ertzaintza, the toxic spillage that occurred in May 2020 on the Arkaitzerreka River and that ended with several fish and eels. This discharge was known because it was denounced by the members of Anerreka de Usurbil, not by the managers of the incinerator, neither by the Waste Management Council of Gipuzkoa, nor by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, which has the main competence in this matter.

And, precisely, since the report of the Civil Guard, GuraSOS has pointed out that it has been known that the Zubieta incinerator had already made a second spill in Aitzerreka last March. In both cases, apparently, the closed circuit that the incinerator must have to channel its dirty water failed and when the managers realized that the pollutants had reached the river, they poured out large amounts of water to disguise, in order to dilute the pollutants.

The leaders of GusaSOS Joxemari Izeta and Joseba Belaustegi explained to the press more details of the controversy that has generated this news. On the one hand, ARGIA also demonstrated in its day that, in addition to the fish, it killed 15 sheep for the pollution of the incinerator: apparently, they drank the poisoned water of Arkaitzerreka and died after several days of agony.

A third novelty has also been found in the expert paper of the Central Environmental Unit of the Civil Guard (UCOMA): it appeared on the shoulders of the eels taken dead in the cuticle of May, as tlaroalkanoam, banned by law since 2004, can cause cancer.

The GuraSOS association, in addition to making these details known, said that "there is a real and serious risk to health and the environment, that economic interests prevail, that the incinerator pollutes, that there is no adequate control, that there is no information, but propaganda. Another clear conclusion is that the “conflict” of the incinerator is far from being resolved.

Here, literally, GuraSOS’s communiqué to citizenship:

The ecological disaster of Arkaitzerreka, intentional dumping to conceal the illegal operation of the Zubieta incinerator

• This seems to be apparent from the police investigations that have been carried out, the content of which has now been known.
• In addition to killing hundreds of fish, large animals, specifically 15 sheep, also died.
• Something similar happened before, on March 18, 2020, but it was also hidden by those responsible for the installation.
• An eel that was inspected by a laboratory had a high chloroalkane index, a banned and highly carcinogenic component that originated in the incinerator, according to the experts of the Civil Guard.
• The illegal operation of the incinerator has been proven since November 2019, without continuous measurements.

The ecological disaster of Arkaitzerreka [arising from the incinerator of Zubieta in May 2020] was due to numerous irregularities and serious illegalities in the development of the project, according to research that has been made known. Despite the fact that the pollution prevention works and systems were not completed and were not available, the GHK decided to launch since November 2019, when the dumping of safety, health and environment gutxietsita.Amoniakoaren was detected, the priority was not to reduce its impact, but to hide evidence of its existence,
without informing the other authorities and preventing the inspection of the facilities.

This is an accident, “a serious chemical accident”, according to experts of the Central Environmental Unit of the Civil Guard (UCOMA), when in the incinerator of Zubieta, on 7 May 2020, there was a discharge of ammonia in the process of loading the ammonium store of the incinerator.
But then it was not an accident, but a conscious action by those responsible for the installation, for trying to remove the traces of ammonia discharge. To this end, huge amounts of water were emitted [2,302,992 liters of ammoniacal water, according to the study] and the ammonia of the entire pluvial network was directly carried to the flow of the Arkaitzerreka stream.

The study denies the version of the GHK that there is a closed circuit and that you can't pour it into the race. In fact, the ammoniac discharges tank was directly related to the pluvial network and the discharge was carried out directly into the river against the environmental authorization and the discharge into the river by the URA Agency.

Ammonia is necessary for the proper functioning of the treatment of gases from the crematorium furnace and leakage is expected to occur in a closed chamber. Emergency services and a hazardous waste manager could be called to collect the discharge of the bucket. But they feared that this would reveal the modification of the design of the watertight system envisaged by the German company SBE, as well as the incompleteness of the security installations and works, so that the operation (even in the tests) was not legally fair. The study carried out so far also shows other striking aspects. Thus, in the tissue of a dead eel, it has been detected
that “very high levels of clarium (0.885 mg/kg) have been detected. It is a substance that has been banned since 2004, which is very toxic and which is clearly carcinogenic. Researchers, experts of the Civil Guard, advised by chemical scientists, believe that the source of this toxic is in the incineration of plastics, gums and other wastes that are burned in the incinerator. It is also known that the incinerator was not the only poisonous spill in Arkaitzerreka. Another event occurred two months earlier, on 18 March 2020, at 11:45 hours, along with another discharge from the same procedure. Researchers conclude that “it would have a potential risk similar to the date of discharge.”

It has also been reported that the mortality caused by the discharge of ammoniacal water was not limited to the hundreds of fish collected as a result of the disappearance of the four species present. One of these species is especially protected, the Euriope eel, but also affected “large animals”, as “15 sheep died after drinking in the race”, according to the researchers, due to a long and dramatic agony, Ikerlan would also refute the fact that the project spokesmen had repeatedly endorsed the incinerator emission measurements being carried out continuously. The Civil Guard requested the results of these measurements in operation for almost a year (until August 2020), and they were given the daily averages, but not the
continuous measurements.

From the observations collected in the condition, it can be concluded that the final cause of the accident is that the installation was working without the necessary administrative authorization, since it can be said that the installation was started for the management of the waste crops generated in the territory, after payment to the concessionary of the service, activating the contract in advance, although the works were unfinished, the necessary tests and adjustments had not been made, there had not been

The study insists that the operation of the facilities was illegal. This indicates “tests have been carried out on the unfinished facilities and with the security systems it has, and the project is carried out and the AAI is required”. It is
normal that “a waste facility of fractions of fractions (...) even in the AAI by avoiding risks to human health and the environment”.

Chapter of Responsibilities The expert report of the Civil
Guard states that “Article 8 of the Chemical Storage Regulation states that the owner of the facility, in the event of an accident with significant damage to persons, to the environment or to the installation itself,
must report to the Competent Body of the Autonomous Community, it should be noted that the territorial delegation has not received any communication and not so much has been the inspection visit”.

Despite the complexity of the web of the entities and companies dancing around the case, it seems that the main responsibility of the crime is the one that decided to act without environmental authorization and without finishing the work: GHK, which is imputed, and Ekondakin,
like Ekobal, linked to the latter, are several workers who are also being investigated by the latter.

GURASOS’s assessment: no transparency or guarantees: concealment, pollution and crime The institutions
(GHK, Diputación, Basque Government) are not reporting the risks of the incinerator, nor guaranteeing health and the environment. Zero transparency, zero information. Zero guarantee. Once again, these deficiencies must be replaced by organised citizens, while the institutions (GHK) investigate for ecological crimes.

The detailed study confirms that the GURASOS group has denounced since the first day that there is a real and serious risk to health and the environment, that economic interests prevail, that the incinerator pollutes, that there is no proper control, that there is no information, but propaganda. Another clear conclusion is that the “conflict” of the incinerator is far from being resolved. We will continue to work inexorably for health and the environment. We will denounce and persecute those responsible here and in Europe. We request the immediate cessation of the installation until it is established that there are no risks with persistent organic pollutants (chloroalkanes, dioxins and others) in application of the precautionary principle.