The councilor for Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition of the Barcelona City Council and president of the public company Tersa, Eloi Badia, has assured the judge that the emissions from the urban waste treatment plant in Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelonès North) are within of the allowed parameters.
The head of the investigating court 5 of Badalona has summoned him together with the head of operation of the center as being investigated for an ecological crime for the alleged emission of polluting particles. The defense argued that Climate Action validated the system to measure the combustion temperature. The accusation, for its part, emphasizes that the Court has upheld its appeal for the Civil Guard to search the plant.
Badia's lawyer, Joan Antonio Loste, has detailed that Tuesday's statement has served to explain to the judge how the facility works. "There is controversy on the part of the judge about the waste combustion regime, we explained it, as well as that the conclusions coincide with those of the environmental administration, which is the Climate Action department," he pointed out.
The doubts lie in the system to measure the combustion temperature, according to the lawyer, who has said that what is important is that the regime to regulate this combustion ensures that polluting substances are not released. "The measures determine that the limits set by the regulations and the environmental authorization are met," he highlighted.
The councilor has answered the questions of the judge and the prosecution, but not those of the prosecution, represented by the Aire Net platform, who have considered that although the right not to answer their questions should be respected, they should have done so as representatives public. "Outside the court there are environments where these issues that interest the neighbors are addressed, and he prefers to summon them and give them an answer in these spaces, a criminal process is not the place to give information of this type," Loste has argued.
The prosecution described the defense made by those investigated about the operation of the plant as "panegyric". "They have explained that algorithms are used to control the combustion temperature of the furnace, but they have not given any explanation to the multitude of questions that we thought to ask them about the efficiency of the plant and pollution," explained the lawyer for the Aire Net platform. and representative of the neighbours, Francesc Jofresa.
Among the questions they wanted to raise were the public data that they ensure reveal emissions into the atmosphere of substances such as mercury, with parameters "much higher than those admitted by current legislation."
Jofresa has pointed out that this same Tuesday they have been informed that the Barcelona Court has considered an appeal that they presented "so that the Civil Guard can enter to carry out a search" at the plant. For its part, the defense is confident that the judicial process will continue its course and that it will end up filing.
