The arrival of pellets to the coast of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria has put the spotlight on the repeated dumping of polluting plastic pellets on the Costa Daurada, with the epicenter on La Pineda beach, in Vila-seca. For five years now, environmental organizations, led by Good Karma Projects and Surfrider Foundation, have denounced that it is one of the most contaminated sandy areas by pellets in Europe and place the origin of the spills in the petrochemical industry of Tarragona. According to environmentalists, in one year alone, in 2022, more than two million pellets were counted.
At the end of last year, the Generalitat opened eight disciplinary proceedings against companies investigated for causing the spills. The Department of Climate Action confirmed this Wednesday that the number of files that may end in sanctions has risen to thirteen.
The Vila-seca City Council has expressed its “helplessness and indignation” at the actions of the Generalitat. Its mayor, Pere Segura (Junts), assured yesterday that “we have been denouncing it for many years and that the competent administration, the Generalitat, has been unable to take it seriously, which is very regrettable.” The mayor maintains that if Acció Climàtica has finally opened the files it is because the environmental entities reported the spills to the Prosecutor’s Office after a long investigation to prove their origin.
La Pineda beach suffers from pellet contamination due to its location, next to one of the petrochemical industrial estates in Tarragona and very close to the port. Environmentalists and the City Council maintain that the plastic pellets are dumped due to negligent action on the part of the industry and reach the ravines and reach the Francolí River, which flows into the Mediterranean. Due to its location and the dynamic coastline, many pellets end up on the Pineda de Vila-seca beach.
On the other hand, the prosecutor of the Environment and Urban Planning Chamber has ordered the first steps to investigate the dumping of pellets that have reached the Galician coast and that has spread to other communities and has requested samples of these plastic pellets and information to the Xunta de Galicia. According to the letter to which Efe has had access, the prosecutor requests that they proceed to “take samples of the potentially dangerous material and analyze it,” as well as determine when and where the pellets appeared.
He also asks Seprona to tell him what the analyzes already carried out consist of and what the result is. The European Parliament will include a specific debate on this spill in next week’s plenary session in Strasbourg (France).