The Badalona City Council has begun to install mobile environmental stations to detect if, as the residents say, the Tenneco company, formerly Necto, a manufacturer of automotive brakes, is polluting. For sixty years, residents have been suffering from black dust emissions which, once studied by the University of Barcelona, ​​show that they are heavy metals whose emissions exceed legal limits.
“This company has turned the neighborhoods of Sant Roc and El Remei into an area of ​​environmental sacrifice,” laments Silvina Frucela, spokesperson for the environmental organization Airenet, the same one that has also put the giant Tersa on the ropes for the emissions from the incinerator of Sant Adria de Besos. In Badalona, ​​the residents have spent years denouncing not only the location of the company but also its emissions. In 2018 the City Council of Sant Adrià already claimed Badalona for bad odors.
The Councilor for the Environment, Rosa Trenado, after speaking with the parties and overcoming the initial tensions, has chosen to carry out new measurements that will make it possible to determine if the “black dust” as the UB study argues contains heavy metals. To do this, she has demanded that the Generalitat install environmental control stations, one of them close to the Fundació Badalona Capaç. “We are next to the neighbors -she affirms- but the problem comes from afar”, argues the councilor who confirms that the multinational has ISO 14001 that guarantees the control of emissions. In addition, she details that the analyzes available to the City Council are satisfactory and are within the regulations.
In this sense, the residents remember that it is the company that carries out its own analyzes that are later referred to the Generalitat, “but there has not been any official investigation here.” For this reason, from Airenet they requested a study from technicians from the University of Barcelona on the emissions of the brake company Tenneco. Many samples of the black powder were taken from around and even from the outside grilles of the company. “Heavy metals have been detected that exceed 200 times the minimum value allowed†in areas where schools are located and even on the roof of the Fundació Badalona Capaç, an entity that works for the labor inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. “People are breathing cancer” says Frucela, who proposes promoting a complaint for environmental crime.
In Badalona there is no specific regulation on odors, acknowledges Trenado, which is why he has begun to study this municipal authority. For the moment, he affirms that strict control is maintained over the company’s emissions, as proof that in recent years they have been forced to carry out various actions, such as raising the chimneys higher, installing a diffuser and a regenerative thermoreactor. Likewise, to alleviate the odors “they have installed a new treatment to purify the gases”. Trenado, in the absence of knowing the data from the UB study, concludes that “the official reports we have are correct and comply with the established parameters.”
From the City Council they assure that the affected area is an area prone to the contamination of particles and nitrogen oxide, but for now they do not have elements to know if the industry is polluting, a competence that falls on the government of the Generalitat which, for On the other hand, they have not detected any irregularities in the routine inspection they carried out before the summer. The municipal Department of the Environment admits that bad odors are noticeable, but of contamination by particles in the air “we have no record” and according to the reports “for 20 years, the company has complied with the law.”
The report prepared by the University of Barcelona reveals that the samples confirm that the legally established minimum levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, tin, vanadium and zinc are exceeded in the area. The most worrying detections arise from the sample taken on the roof of Fundació Capaç Caltor.
For its part, the company, through a statement, ensures that Tenneco is a company committed to the safety of its personnel and the community that operates with total respect for the environment and meets all requirements. The company’s brake factory in Badalona works continuously with the authorities to ensure that its environmental management system, its activities and its licenses comply with the legislation. They ensure that all chemical components used in the production process of Tenneco brake pads “are officially authorized and comply with European legislation”. Similarly, they state that “we are committed to working actively with local authorities and organizations.”
Tenneco Badalona was established in 1958. This company manufactures brake pads for car manufacturers around the world. The Badalona factory currently has 180 employees.
