New option for Portman Bay Regeneration

Acciona and Aria propose a private initiative to dredge the waste and extract iron for subsequent export

This week a new possibility for the Portmán Bay regeneration project has been laid on the table by Acciona, in collaboration with mineral multinational, Aria, a private proposal to clean the sterile wastes and extract remaining minerals for resale.

It’s been 21 years since Peñarroya stopped tipping millions of tons of sterile waste into Portmán bay, leaving the municipality of La Unión with one of the worst environmental disasters in Spain on their hands.

Between July 1957 and March of 1990, Peñarroya, who stopped extracting iron from the mined material when it became financially unviable, focusing primarily on lead and zinc instead, tipped 50 million tons of mineral residue, extracted by open cast mining, into the Bay of Portmán and Mediterranean. These silts spread out across the floor of the bay, covering eight square kilometres to a depth of 150 metres, modifying the shape of the bay.

The Spanish government was fully aware of the dumping, and allowed it to continue.

The question of who should finance the clean up has always been open to dispute as Peñarroya technically ceased to exist and the assets and concessions were “bought” by Portmán Golf, who want to develop the area around Portmán for tourism housing. Technically the company is not liable for the dumping carried out by what is a totally separate legal entity, in spite of the fact that a percentage of the share ownership is still in the same hands. Local campaigners have fought many bitter battles with the developer over property rights and maintain that the company should bear at least some of the cost of the clean-up as they will ultimately benefit from the regeneration of the bay when the projected housing developments and sporting marina are built.

The project to remove the waste and reclaim the bay has undergone a tumultuous ride which is still far from concluded, the latest project compromised by the failure of an official within the Ministry of Environment to enter all the bids submitted, thus favouring one party over another, the discovery of which sunk the last firm adjudication of the project.

Since then, various options have been put forward and the plans scaled down to a less ambitious timeframe to try and fit in with the current financial embarrassment of central government, and various options explored to cut down the cost and begin the process of regeneration.

This latest proposal is a private initiative and has been put forward by a Unión Temporal de Empresas (UTE) which includes Acciona, and Aria, based in Hamburg.

The formal request to undertake the project and draft proposals were submitted to the Directorate General for Industry, Energy and Mines of the Autonomous Community of Murcia and the Department of Sustainability for the Coast and the Sea, part of the Ministry of Environment on Friday.

The proposal is a request for the Ministry to grant a licence for the sterile waste deposits dumped into the bay to be dredged and then dried so that the iron ore they contain can be extracted and then sold to Asia, where demand is high.

During the last few months the UTE has been undertaking core sampling and carrying out tests on the waste extracted, which they are now satisfied bears enough ore to make the project viable and yield a profit, in spite of the multi million euro investment which will be required to build a processing plant to handle the volumes of sterile waste.

The project submitted allows for Aria to provide the financing required, whilst Acciona undertakes the “dirty end” of the job and handles the sterile deposits, dredging them and processing to extract the ore. The ore can then be shipped directly to China via the “port of Escombreras” .

The proposal mentions a period of 5 years during which to extract 12.5 million tons of sterile waste, and providing the request is accepted, a definitive project could be presented in July, following which a period of consultation would be opened for technicians to analyse the proposal.

In order for there to be no accusations of improper actions, the whole project would be opened up for public bids.

The council of La Unión are keen to see progress in the regeneration project which would enable them to maximise the tourism and commercial possibilities open to the municipality once the bay has been cleaned. The challenge of creating employment within the municipality is a constant preoccupation, as is the subject of how to clean up waste dumped in the Sierra Minera and protect the mining heritage of the municipality.

Some local campaigners and opposition parties are predictably uncertain about the viability of this project, and a meeting has been called for July 1st with representatives of the local neighbours association to discuss the plans.

Images: Core sampling taking place in the bay recently