The Left Bloc stance today was that the Portuguese Environment Agency has failed regarding pollution in the Tagus river, that it failed to properly control the pulp producer, Celtejo and that the president of the agency must resign.Left Bloc MPs accused the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) of having failed, when in 2016 it altered the license awarded to Celtejo to allow the company’s plant to increase the amount organic pollutants pumped into the river.
At today's parliamentary hearing, Carlos Matias said that even the Minister of the Environment has acknowledged that it was a bad idea to have awarded the 2016 license.
The lone MP from PAN, André Silva, argued that the president of the APA must take responsibility and asked Nuno Lacasta, "Are you going to quit?"
Carlos Matias considers that the environmental agency passed a license "to legalise what was illegal", noting that Celtejo, the company identified as the main source of pollution in the Tagus - including January's 'blanket of foam' incident, admitted that it was failing to meet the effluent limits set in the 2014 license.
Nuno Lacastra explained that the 2016 adjustment to the licence to raise the allowable pollution levels was done within the legal framework, invoking community recommendations that allow industries a four-year adaptation period, "At the end of this period, the limits would be met, as defined in the licence issued at the end of 2014."
The president of the APA acknowledged that in 2015-2016, when these higher discharges were authorised, the drought situation was not anticipated.
Lancastre said that in 2018, the new licence to be awarded to Celtejo will have a more dynamic configuration, as licenses traditionally are static, fixed for certain conditions, "We have to change paradigms to take into account the different periods of the year and contemplate situations of exception such as drought. It is a complex technical issue, but it is possible to implement.”
The agency president refused Celtejo’s request to exclude the emission limit for Biochemical Oxygen Demand - the parameter of the license with which Celtejo did not comply - and imposed a ceiling that corresponded to the average value of the two previous years.
These convoluted explanations failed to convince the Left Bloc MPs on the committee, who pointed out that in effect, Celtejo was self-certifying, "If the goal was to reduce organic load, how is there so much accumulated load now? It is the fault of those who have been dumping the stuff over the years."
"They failed. What you are saying is that you have passed a groundless license."
Stressing that the flow of the Tagus river has not reduced so very much, the Left Bloc was adamant, "There is more pulp waste, the license was wrong and you must take consequences. You have to resign."
