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article_detail
Date Published: 01/12/2021
ARCHIVED - Senior figures blamed in criminal court for Mar Menor pollution
Three top Murcian government officials and 38 agricultural companies held criminally responsible for nitrate run-off into the Mar Menor
Although it’s still in its early stages, a judicial trial investigating the pollution in the Mar Menor has pointed the finger squarely at three former senior officials of Agriculture and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura (CHS) for prevarication and 38 agricultural companies for releasing polluting substances into the lagoon.
Just a month after grassroots campaigners succeeded in getting legal personhood for the Mar Menor discussed in Spanish Congress, the magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 2 in Murcia, after finishing the investigation of the first part of the so-called ‘Topillo case’, has agreed there are indications of environmental crime. The blame has been laid on businessmen, administrators and managers of 38 agricultural companies for discharging contaminants into the Mar Menor from illegal desalination plants in the Cartagena countryside, and for failing to implement the proper oversight to stop such pollution from happening.
In addition, the case will continue against some of the top officials of the Regional Ministry of the Environment and the CHS.
Notable figures in Murcia who are being held criminally responsible include ex-councillor of Agriculture, Antonio Cerdá; the ex-Commissioner for Water, Manuel Aldeguer; and the ex-President of the CHS, Rosario Quesada.
The judge in the case clearly stated that the responsibility for drawing up regulations affecting the agricultural use of nitrates in the Campo de Cartagena and for ensuring compliance with them lay with the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, who showed a “permissive attitude” and was guilty of “omission of the obligatory inspections”.
It is possible that as a result of this ruling, the parties responsible will have to pay indemnities of an estimated 19.5 million euros. It can only be hoped that this money will be reinvested back into cleaning up the Mar Menor and preventing such crimes from taking place in future, though it will be only a fraction of the 300 million supposedly promised for the Mar Menor by the central government in next two years’ budgets.
While this ruling is a step forward in holding private and public officials to account over their role in the environmental catastrophe in the Mar Menor, it mustn’t be forgotten that at this moment the lagoon is sadly still suffering the consequences of such nitrate run-off.
Image: CARM
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