The City Hall of Ayala opened a dossier to the company "Zorroza waste management" before last week's occupational death for failing to comply with environmental and human protection standards.

The architect of the City of Ayala considers that the company committed "very serious infringements" with regard to the environment, people and their properties. In the opinion of the technician, the company had an unauthorized activity, did not implement the proposed remedial measures and, furthermore, denied access to the company on three occasions.

The Aiaraldea media has had the opportunity to read the report of the municipal architect of Ayala on the company Zorroza waste management, prepared last December. One of the bases of the text is the technical report issued earlier – December 2017. In that letter, the technician concluded that Zorroza waste management would incur two serious infringements: it was engaged in an activity not contemplated in its project – accumulating unauthorized materials – and, in addition, accumulating more garbage than it could in its facilities.

Licence for administrative silence

Another striking fact can be found in the report of the municipal architect. In fact, the company obtained by administrative silence the licence it required to carry out its business. In other words, Zorroza asked the Director of Environmental Administration of the Basque Government for permission to carry out his activity, but did not receive a reply. In this way he got his permission. If no answer is forthcoming, the law provides in some cases that the authorization has already been granted.

Very serious infringements

In any case, the authorisation obtained by administrative silence does not recognise the subsequent activity carried out by the company. For a start, Zorrokak has assembled more materials at the factory than he indicated on his list.

In addition, the document states that the space occupied by the blocks of materials accumulated in the plant was 22.54% higher than that allowed: “The number of plastics and glasses has increased by 170.66% and the number of tires has increased by 205%.”

In addition, the report points out that the corrective measures to be taken in response to this enlargement were not implemented, showing the lack of fire protection infrastructures.

Fire

In particular, the municipal architect explained that on October 2, 2017 there was a fire at the San Mamés factory. The Alavese Fire Brigade raised the flames up to five meters high, adding that the amount of fuel accumulated in the factory contributed to the spread of fire, according to the report.

For all these reasons, the City Council issued on January 9, 2018 an Order of Mayor requiring the company to remove all types of rubble that exceeded the permitted height. The local entity also required the adaptation to the fire load specified in the initial project.

However, according to the architect, the company did not make any changes. In March 2019, the local entity’s technician made several photos from outside the factory to document all the accumulated garbage.

The Izoria River, contaminated

Another noteworthy thing is the Izoria River, which passes by the polygon of Murga. In fact, it is one of the most polluted in the CAV, as according to the 2017 report of the URA agency "contains urban and industrial waste".

The architect of the City of Ayala informed the company Zorroza of waste management that it did not have an adequate cement surface to prevent water contamination, which was included among the remedial measures, which had not been complied with.

For all the above reasons, the conclusions of the architect were clear: the company acted illegally, as it was accumulating more garbage than allowed, without taking the necessary security measures to do so. In short, the architect concluded that the company committed "very serious infringements", based on the environmental protection legislation of the CAV.

Zorroza removes waste after the accident

With all this background, the statements of several witnesses from the workshops in the area are entirely meaningful. The workers of Zorroza management of adjacent or striking waste, Personal Mechanical Pipes, have raised some doubts about the company's position regarding the arrests that are taking place in the sector. Several witnesses have indicated, among others, that Zorroza waste management deposited the factory in trucks during the night following the tragedy. "Before the accident, the pavilion was full of garbage. The following day, however, before the police appeared, there were trucks parked inside and there was no trace of rubble," the witnesses said.

Access denied three times

There is more evidence of a lack of transparency in the report. According to the municipal technician, last year the municipal technical services tried to enter the company three times, but they were not allowed, although this represented a right of the Administration’s workers to enforce environmental legislation.

In the first two cases, they were told that the director was not in the room. In the third attempt, however, it was the owner of the company himself who blocked them from entering. Last January, the technicians managed to get inside the company. The dossier is still open, as reported by the City of Ayala.

Safety of persons at risk

Ayala’s architect’s report also focused on the safety of workers and people in general. Thus, the technician considered it appropriate to inform Osalan and the Labour Inspectorate about the situation in the company, in order to investigate whether the safety and health of people were put at risk, according to the law. The Senegalese worker died two months later in an occupational accident, in which he died a year later.