The Artajona waste treatment plant transported between 2022 and 2023 thousand tonnes of leachate from the Zubieta incinerator illegally to change the identification code and collect it as "sludges".

The scandal erupted a few months ago and has also taken the criminal route of the courts, as a court in San Sebastian is investigating the case, and the Environment Deputy in Gipuzkoa, José Ignacio Asensio, is also investigating this matter at the request of the prosecutor’s office. Zubieta's garbage is managed by the company Ekondakin, subcontracted by the Waste Consortium of Gipuzkoa, and Asensio is the president of the public society.

The Government of Navarra has now urged the Department of the Environment of the Basque Government to initiate a dossier of sanctions against Ekondakin for waste shipped to Artajona. This has been announced by the Environment Minister, José María Aierdi, in his hearing before the Committee on Rural Development and the Environment of the Parliament of Navarra.

In any case, Aierdi (Geroa Bai) explains that the request for a fine is a "private" company and that it is a "normal practice" if it has committed an infringement, "notify" the environmental authority of the community in which it is located.

Although the Zubieta incinerator does not have authorization for the production of leachate, Ekondakin transported for at least one and a half years this type of substances that can generate ecotoxicity to Artajona, arguing that they were originated by "extraordinary events". But the Basque Government did not control this, nor did it receive information on the characterization of the material, because it was "the relationship between two private entities", as acknowledged by Arantxa Tapia in the answer to a question by EH Bildu in the Basque Parliament.

Closure order of the Artajona plant

At the hearing of the Parliament of Navarra, Aierdi explained that on Tuesday the Department of the Environment signed a resolution to provisionally close the Artajona plant with precautionary measures, which ratified the decision taken in January. Ecofu has therefore prohibited the collection of any waste.

This plant, in addition to the 5,500 tonnes of leachate taken from Zubieta, received thousands of tonnes of leachate from the Tudelan plant in Oleofat, a company based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, despite the lack of authorisation for its treatment. Ecofu has the possibility of appealing to the resolution of the Government of Navarra and the case could be brought to justice.