These have not been easy weeks for Eugenia Martínez de Irujo. Added to her family dispute with her brother Cayetano is that the Seville Prosecutor’s Office has accused the Duchess of Montoro of committing an alleged crime against the environment for “illegal detraction in the waters of Doñana.” After this accusation came to light, Eurotecnia Agraria S.L. separates Eugenia from the management of the entity.
The company assures in the statement that the extraction of water “has at no time exceeded the maximum volume approved by the CHG”, and also details that Luis Martínez de Irujo “is the member of the council responsible for the management of the Aljobar farm”, defending that the aristocrat “has never participated in the management of the farm.” And it is worth noting that the court has called to declare Eugenia as president of the entity, something that has now been clarified.
For its part, the prosecution has indicated that an inspection by the Civil Guard and the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) discovered “eight unregistered wells” on the farm that would be irrigating about 200 hectares of orange trees, the CHG considering that ” The damage to the public hydraulic domain in this campaign due to illegitimate irrigation until that day resulted in a consumption of 305,851.73 cubic meters of water” from the Aljarafe Sur water body, corresponding to the territory of the Guadiamar water system. This would mean an amount of 36,702.16 euros, as detailed by the prosecution.
After this information came to light, the company assures that it has not “damaged the public domain at any time” and that “the Aljóbar farm is outside the Doñana aquifer.” “The farm has an authorization for irrigation through wells of 606,000 cubic meters of water per year and storage of the extracted water in a private pond of 304,000 cubic meters of water per year, with authorization to irrigate 200 hectares,” reads the statement. Furthermore, the company assures that “currently “122 hectares of orange trees are irrigated with a drip irrigation system authorized by the CHG thanks to a ruling, an area smaller than that authorized in the registration of the private waters of the farm.”
On the other hand, Eurotecnia Agraria S.L. assures that Aljóbar “has technological systems to control the amount of water used for irrigation of the property and also has a volumetric counter at the outlet of the pond in the irrigation head that confirms the volume of water extracted, which in At no time has it exceeded the maximum volume approved by the CHG. At the moment, the date on which Eugenia will have to give a statement before the judge is unknown, so we will have to wait to find out more details.
On the other hand, Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, Eugenia’s brother, spoke about this controversy in the last few hours. Both are going through a tense moment in their relationship and have made several exchanges of statements to the press. The Count of Salvatierra could not help but, very angry, react to this situation, asking his brothers “to speak up” and “show their faces” about the issue of the wells that have them facing each other. Finally, the time has come and the company has issued a statement defending itself against the accusations.
