Verter obtained authorisation for the discharge of asbestos due to lack of response from the Basque Government
- The Environment Department of the Basque Government has informed ARGIA of the procedure by which the company Verter Recycling 2002 obtained authorisation for the dumping of asbestos waste in the Zaldibar landfill: the company requested the Basque Government that the incorporation of this hazardous waste was not a "substantial modification" and the Administration did not reply in one month, so it obtained authorisation.
"In April 2011 [Verter Recycling 2002] requested the incorporation of fibrocement among the waste authorized under Law 16/2002 on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control. Article 10.2 of the Act was applied to this request, which states that if within one month it does not receive a negative response, it will be able to carry out its activity. And the amendments made to the Integrated Environmental Authorisation in 2013 took detailed account of this modification, i.e. the construction materials with fibercement (asbestos) were included among the authorised residues." As Iñaki Arriola has done in the Permanent Representative, the Environment Department has recalled that for the first time this landfill collected asbestos waste in 2012, that is, after the said procedure.
This is the explanation that the Environment Department of the Basque Government has given to ARGIA after consulting the inspector who knows the Zaldibar landfill dossier. The reader will recall that this medium published that the first asbestos waste was collected in 2012 at the Zaldibar landfill, one year before the Integrated Environmental Authorisation of 2013 authorised it. The Department of the Environment responded to ARGIA via Twitter that the 2007 Integrated Environmental Authorisation already collected the authorisation for the discharge of asbestos and opened an erroneous reading of the European Waste Classification Code LER. ARGIA reported that this information was false.
Following this debate, the Environment Department of the Basque Government has informed ARGIA that the way to grant the company Verter Recycling the authorisation to dispose of asbestos in 2012 has been as described above. Pilar Unzalu was then a member of the PSE as Minister for the Environment of the Government of Patxi López, who has been replaced by Patxi López.
The main key: Initiation of exposure to asbestos was not considered a "fundamental" change.
The "Law 16/2002 of 1 July on integrated pollution prevention and control" referred to by the Department of the Environment of the Basque Government is available here in Spanish. We have translated Article 10 of that law into Basque, which, in its application, gave good cause for the dumping of asbestos at the Zaldibar dump in 2012.
The third and fourth points attract attention: The change that Verter did not describe as "substantial" at the beginning of exposure to asbestos classified as hazardous waste was approved by the Basque Government, without a reply in one month.
Article 10: Installation modification
1. The modification of an installation subject to Integrated Environmental Authorisation may be substantial or non-substantial.2nd The modification of
an installation shall be considered to be substantial for the purposes of safety, human health and the most important environment affecting the planned modification: (a) the size of the installation. (b)
Natural resources used by the installation. (c) Water and energy consumption. d) Volume, weight and type of waste. (e) The quality and regenerative capacity of
natural resources in geographical areas that may be affected. (f) The level of pollution produced. (g) Accident risk. (h) Increased or increased use of dangerous substances.
3. The operator of the facility intending to make an amendment shall communicate it to the body competent to grant the Integrated Environmental Authorisation, giving a reasoned indication as to whether or not the amendment is substantial in accordance with the criteria set out in the previous paragraph. Supporting documents for the reasons set out above shall be attached to this communication.
4. Where the operator of the installation considers that the proposed modification is not substantial, he may carry out such a modification provided that the body competent to grant the Integrated Environmental Authorisation does not state otherwise within one month.
5. If the proposed amendment is considered to be substantial by the Autonomous Community's own owner or body, it may not be carried out until environmental authorisation is granted.
Tomorrow, 3 March, ARGIA will publish other information related to this topic.
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