The spokespersons for the Platform for a Sustainable Port of Alicante do not quite understand the lack of forcefulness in the institutional response to a project, the large installation of fuel tanks in the port area, which not only the neighborhood movements, but all the parties Politicians represented in the city council say they reject.
Since last October, when they requested it, they have hoped to hold a meeting with the mayor, Luis Barcala, who had not responded yesterday. For this reason, they have presented a document in which they urge the Alicante city council “to appeal in cassation the ruling of the TSJCV that has granted the environmental license due to positive silence to the company promoting the unacceptable project.”
The platform considers that the environmental license granted “had not completed its processing process and, therefore, the required environmental protection or the safety of citizens is not guaranteed.” They use Supreme and Constitutional jurisprudence that, in their opinion, “delegitimizes tacit environmental authorizations.”
Furthermore, they see fraud in the law in “the blatant division of the project” by the applicant firm, In 2018, it expanded the plan to 18 warehouses with a total capacity of 700,000 tons.
On the other hand, the members of the platform explain to La Vanguardia that there is a clear legal possibility of obtaining the annulment of the modification of the concession granted by the Alicante Port Authority (APA) in 2019. The Administrative Law experts consulted believe that The APA should have requested the environmental impact declaration of the entire project, with 18 aerial macro-depots to store 700,000 tons of dangerous substances, according to regulations, transfer of large quantities of fuel from ship to ship, and the modification of the dock to accommodate oil tankers. of up to 80,000 tons of cargo, with a high contaminating potential.
The members of the platform have held two meetings with the president of the Port Authority, Luis Rodríguez, whom they thank for his good disposition, but they still do not know if, as they argue, he will be willing to “declare ex officio the nullity of the concession.” due to the requirement of Law 6/2014 on Quality and Pollution Prevention, which establishes the prohibition of establishing this type of large storage of petroleum products within a thousand meters of consolidated urban areas or population centers.
The legal services consulted by the neighborhood representatives also believe that the 1995 agreement between the Central Government, the Port Authority, the Generalitat Valenciana, the Alicante City Council and the hydrocarbon company CLH, by which the then existing deposits were transferred, is still in force. , which determined that “in the future there should be no facilities of these characteristics, to avoid the negative repercussions of possible accidents and their environmental impact.”
In the absence of obtaining a municipal response, the residents consider it paradoxical that while projects are promoted in the port area such as the Congress Center and beach and cruise tourism are promoted, the different administrations are not able to definitively close the door to an activity ” “polluting or dangerous for the city and its inhabitants.”
