Response to the GHK: citizens need to know the Zubieta incinerators
- Since the start of the Incineration Control Movement (EAM), the results of the ToxiWatch Foundation’s investigation into the pollution of the incinerator of Zubieta, the Waste Consortium of Gipuzkoa (GHK), have responded through the media that the information we disseminate is “false accusations that only seek to generate social alarm” and added: “ToxiWatch produces reports without technical or scientific rigor, disfiguring reality with lies to scare citizens.” It follows that the GHK measures the emissions of the incinerator on a daily basis and that Biodonostia monitors: “The data provided by Biodonostia has absolute scientific support and is absolutely clear. We find it very serious that some try again to divide Gipuzkoan society into waste.”
From the Anti-Incineration Movement we strongly denounce the malicious behaviour of the GHK in this area. First, the Dutch foundation ToxiWatch is an international benchmark in the scientific toxicology community a.Se has commissioned the measurement and analysis of emissions generated by the Zubieta incinerator, which analyzes samples collected with strict controls in accredited Dutch laboratories and has published the results and analysis on its website www.toxicowatch.org available to all. In cooperation, Geyser, a company accredited by the Basque Government, has also carried out some measurements.
While ToxiWatch makes its research public, the reports referred to by the GHK are NOT PUBLIC. Why do they hide these studies conducted by Biodonostia since 2019 and do not make them public? As you say, if you measure dioxins every day, why don't you publish the results in detail?
As regards the measurements of pollution carried out by the GHK itself, there are only two public reports that contain unacceptable levels of pollution. For example, the SGS Facility Monitoring Report 905-286137-02 states that dioxin values representing an unacceptable risk to human health or ecosystems are exceeded six times in groundwater. The discharges that have been taking place in Arkaitzerreka since July, the GHK systematically denies them, and without yet being approved publicly, it has been known that the GHK has serious problems in its fossils and that the Environment Department of the Basque Government has forced action to prevent pollution. Is the transparency, technical and scientific rigor of the GHK? Since neither the GHK nor the authorities of Gipuzkoa and the CAPV guarantee control of the discharges of incineration burning waste in Zubieta against the will of the public, nor transparent information about them, the EAM requested ToxiWatch to carry out a continuous analysis of these discharges, and is working year after year since 2019. There are, therefore, no lies, no manipulations, no pretensions to divide citizenship or to extend the fear of society, but to complement what the GHK and the public authorities do not want to do.
If the GHK wants to send calm messages to the public with the Environment Deputy, José Ignacio Asensio, they know exactly what the way is: make public what and how much the ovens of the Zubieta incinerator pour through the fireplace, show how you do the measurement of the discharges at all times, if you do, and the results. Make public all the reports before the public.
18 December 2022.
Movement Against Incineration, Sun, North Wind
