The Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) suspended the activity license of the company's waste management center inertegarve which is the burning since Thursday, July 14th, in the area of Vale da Venda (Almancil).
According to CCDR's note, the license suspension procedure it is being done «in close collaboration» with the GNR, with a view to «an urgent resolution of this environmental problem».
It's just that it's not the first time that there's been a fire there: in September 2011, there was also a fire that, according to a neighbor of the dump, took «two months to burn».
But that did not stop the CCDR from, in April 2019, licensing a project for a “waste management” activity, requested under the exceptional regime for the regularization of economic activities.
After the fire last Thursday, the Sul Informação questioned the CCDR – and the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests – about the existence of this waste plant.
But the only answer came in the form of a press release, already today, the 18th, in which the CCDR explains that the approval of the project in 2019 implied «compliance with the requirements established in the legislation in force at the time, among others, the minimum requirements for construction and demolition waste management facilities'.
Since then, the Regional Coordination and Development Commission says that it has "notified the operator" to comply with some aspects, such as "regular and periodic forwarding of waste, in order to reduce its quantity in the installation" or the improvement of the "process of sorting in order to guarantee the correct separation of all the different fractions of waste received at the facilities».
Added to this are “construction works necessary to adapt the facilities to the legal requirements in force in terms of waste management and the legal regime for urbanization and building and fire prevention and safety”.
The “imposition” of these measures took place, moreover, “after consultation with the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, IP, the Municipality of Loulé – Municipal Civil Protection Service and Municipal Fire and Heliport Office, and the National Emergency Authority and Civil Protection».
On the other hand, despite being licensed to «management of construction and demolition waste», a lot of plastic and paper also accumulated on its premises, which are what has been burning since last week.
On the 14th, the commander himself Irlandino Santos, from the Loulé Fire Department, had already warned that little could be done to completely extinguish the combustion. “There is nothing to do here. Given the type of fuel (plastics and wood), there is no possible extinction”, he said.
What is certain is that, today, Monday, July 18, the smell of burning and a faint cloud of smoke, caused by the fire that is still raging, continue to be noticed in the area.
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