The Palmeira quarry, which has been operating in Monchique for about 15 years, without complying with rules, will be included in the "Intervention Plan for Quarries in Critical Situation", said the office of João Pedro Matos Fernandes, Minister of Environment and Transition Energetics, to Sul Informação.
According to a clarification sent to our newspaper, the Ministry of Environment explains that “the elaboration of the “Intervention Plan in Critical Situations” is underway, coordinated by the Office of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition, with DGEG [General Directorate of Energy and Geology] validated the inclusion of the aforementioned quarry in the scope and objectives of the aforementioned Intervention Plan».
Like the Sul Informação The General Inspectorate of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning (IGAMAOT) had already said, is following the case.
Nuno Banza, Inspector General of IGAMAOT, he told our newspaper that the organization would "analyze the news report we received and it could be us or the ASAE instructing the process".
According to the Ministry of the Environment, IGAMAOT will even instruct the process, since it is already «running instructional steps, aiming at collecting information from the Municipality of Monchique, ICNF, CCDR, DGEG and APA, with with a view to carrying out an extraordinary inspection, focusing on land use planning and nature conservation'.
In this extraordinary inspection, an «evaluation of the fulfillment of easements and public utility restrictions on the area of Quarry nº 3646, called “Palmeira nº2” and other existing occupations in a contiguous area, covered by Rede Natura 2000, National Ecological Reserve and Perimeter for the Protection of the Exploitation of Natural Mineral Waters».
The quarry of Palmeira works in an area that is Rede Natura 2000 and that is part of the protection perimeter of the Mineral Water of Caldas de Monchique.
That syenite farm has been licensed since 1988, but it was not working between 1997 and 2003, having resumed work that year.
Since then, complaints and complaints have been made by residents due to non-compliance with various rules, such as the working hours of the quarry or the constant expansion of the exploration area, without permission, which has even led the Municipality of Monchique to embargo the work outside the licensed zone, like the Sul Informação revealed it firsthand on November 30th.
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