The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed the request for a precautionary measure filed by the Autonomous Community of Murcia and by the Alicante Provincial Council against Royal Decree 35/2023, of January 24, which approved the revision of the plans of different hydrographic districts, and specifically in reference to the minimum flows that are foreseen in the infrastructure of the Tajo-Segura transfer.
The Supreme Court resolves that the requested precautionary suspension is inadmissible while it is resolved on the merits of the appeals filed by said institutions.
Already on May 4, 2023, the precautionary suspension interested by the Valencian Community of the staggering of the ecological flows of the Tagus for the years 2026 and 2027, between the Bolarque dam and the Valdecañas reservoir, was rejected in a Supreme Order. And, in the same terms, on July 12, 2023, another appeal was rejected at the request of the Los Montesinos City Council.
In its response to the appeals, the Chamber endorses the argument of the State Attorney's Office according to which "the non-implementation of the flow regime or the possible suspension of its application until a certain moment would imply avoiding, on the one hand, "the achievement of adequate hydromorphological conditions for the surface water masses present in the Tagus axis and, consequently, jeopardize reaching good ecological status in them before the end of 2027, in accordance with the deadlines reflected by the WFD".
And secondly, it could avoid "the conservation or recovery of the natural environment, maintaining the fish life that naturally inhabits or could inhabit the river, as well as the riverside vegetation."
The rapporteur for both proceedings, Judge Ángel Ramón Arozamena, considers that the reports presented by the appellants do not sufficiently prove that there is an imminent danger that "the implementation of ecological flows will affect from the first step - not in the staggering 2026 or 2027, when this process will presumably have finished-, and in a direct and significant way, on the volume of water transferred, with the consequent effect on irrigated agriculture".
