Inspectors from IGAMAOT – General Inspectorate of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning, the head of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in the Algarve and agents of SEPNA, the GNR's environmental protection service, will meet this afternoon in Aljezur, at the GNR headquarters, to analyze and take a possible decision on the drilling being carried out at the Perdigão site.
These perforations were the target of complaints to IGAMAOT by the Platform Algarve Livre de Petróleo (PALP), of the association ASMAA – Algarve Surf & Marine Activities Association, as well as denounced by facebook groups as “No to Fracking – Preserving Aljezur" or "Fracking Vila do Bispo? Not!” and also by the mayor of Aljezur, in contacts made by the mayor with various entities and ministries.
José Amarelinho, mayor of Aljezur, visited this morning, accompanied by Sebastião Teixeira, responsible for the APA in the Algarve, the area where the company Domus Verde is drilling, allegedly only for «the abstraction of groundwater for agricultural irrigation in about 7 hectares'.
The mayor, who has stood out in contesting the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Algarve, told the Sul Informação having noticed, during the visit, "some odd coincidences, to say the least": first, "the geologist from Portfuel [the Sousa Cintra company that was awarded the concession for the exploration] is following the work of drilling the wells by DomusVerde». "I saw him there and he identified himself as a geologist at Portfuel," guaranteed Amarelinho in statements to our newspaper.
Then, taking into account that «abundant water at 300 meters has already been found, it is not clear why they are continuing drilling up to 500 meters, according to the license that was granted to them. If the objective of the drilling is just to find water for a hypothetical farm, that would not be necessary», added José Amarelinho.
Another “strange coincidence”, in the opinion of the mayor of Aljezur, is knowing that “to make an eventual oil prospecting hole, it is necessary to have a lot of water”.
Amarelinho also emphasizes that, «no matter how many questions I ask, to Energy, to the Environment, no one has yet been able to tell me what kind of horticultural crops are planned for this land. What farm is this?”
On the other hand, he expressed his concern that “the ongoing drilling works are polluting other holes in the vicinity. The water from the neighbors' boreholes is muddy, which is causing alarm, and people no longer want to water their gardens with these very turbid waters, for fear of consequences for their health».
The mayor of Aljezur also added, in his statements to the Sul Informação, that the Municipality was not invited and therefore will not be present at the meeting that this afternoon brings together IGAMAOT, SEPNA and APA. "But I can say one thing: this meeting only takes place because of the complaints made and the despair of the people I have brought to the guardianships."
The socialist mayor added that he could not "continue to deal with this lack of transparency, this fog, which hangs over the entire process."
When, in December, the first information appeared, on social networks, on the boreholes that would be opened at the Perdigão site, Aljezur, recalled yesterday the PALP, «the information given by the government entities, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the National Entity for the Fuel Market (ENMC), was that it was about drilling for the abstraction of groundwater for agricultural irrigation in about 7 hectares'.
Later, the applicant company "requested groundwater research up to 500 meters", invoking the "technical justification for researching the lithologies in depth and determining their hydrogeological potential". An investment that, for a farm, doesn't make much sense.
Hence, the suspicion has arisen, well-founded, that the perforations are not intended to find water for irrigation of an eventual farm, but to support future research into hydrocarbons. «There are too many very strange coincidences here, which I want to see very well clarified», guarantees mayor José Amarelinho.
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