The general director of Environment and Mar Menor visits the works accompanied by the general director of Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Valencian Community
The work of eliminating one of the leachate storage tanks, with a capacity of 1,800 cubic meters, is one of the last actions for the environmental restoration of the old Abanilla landfill. With this action, which began today, the works of the last phase of the project of adaptation, sealing, closure and restoration of the area affected by illegal discharges by the company that managed the landfill until 2011 now reach 72 per cent. hundred.
Specifically, of the area of more than 270,000 square meters affected by these discharges have been sealed 195,000 square meters, corresponding to vessels 1-2, 3 and H. The remaining 28 percent corresponds to specific actions and vessels A and 0 , which are located in common areas with the Valencian Community.
The general director of Environment and Mar Menor, Antonio Luengo, visited the area today accompanied by the general director of Climate Change and Valencian Environmental Quality, Joan Piquer, to check the evolution of the work in the lands that affect the Region and coordinate the start of works in these common areas, scheduled for next week.
«Once all the risks have been checked, following the emergency actions that concluded in October last year, the extraction of the leachates stored in this deposit and their subsequent sealing represent an important step forward to solve one of the consequences of the irregular action of the society that managed the plant, as it is the bad smells for the neighbors of the area, «said Antonio Luengo.
The work of extraction and elimination of the deposit will take place between the months of August and September. Later, once the summer ends, vegetation will be replanted to regenerate the land and recover its natural state. For its part, the waste will be transferred to an authorized manager for treatment in accordance with the regulations.
It is expected that this last phase of the adaptation, sealing, decommissioning and restoration project will be definitively concluded in November. These works, which began last March and have a budget of more than 1.8 million euros, have allowed the sealing and waterproofing of vessels and areas with waste, as well as the establishment of a runoff drainage system surface and covering the area with topsoil and revegetation.