San Miguel Councillor, María José Costa, has told the Spanish press that, “I do not want my town to be the dump of the Vega Baja, the construction of a waste plant is unfair”
She is the first councillor who has said loud and clear that she will work to prevent the installation of the proposed plant in the municipality
To achieve this she has undertaken a crusade in which he seeks neighborhood support. She is currently making door-to-door visits to alert the residents, many of who are already hanging banners in protest against the project. Banners which say “No garbage here,” and “No to the garbage plant,” are also adorning many roads and buildings in the area.
Meanwhile, the Vega Baja still has no facilities to treat its own waste.
A Lawyer by profession and councillor “by conviction”, María José Costa (UPyD) has become the new thorn in the side of the Vega Baja Sustainable Consortium. As was previously the case in Cox, Granja and Albatera, the councillor is building a neighborhood movement in San Miguel de Salinas to boycott the project that, she says, would bring ruin to the municipality.
There are many reasons why she says she is against the project, the economic destruction of businesses at all levels, the collapse of services, hospitality, construction and the tourism sectors which, as a second-line beach town, it needs to survive.
The possible location would be less than two and a half kilometres from the town centre, adjacent to agricultural fields that are being used by farmers year round, houses that are inhabited all year round, businesses and even a nearby hotel, bordering with the Natural Park of the La Mata and Torrevieja lagoons which should render the chosen location as completely unsuitable.
Although the objections being raised originate largely from San Miguel, of the 29,000 square metres of occupation space required for the necessary facilities, which are located in the area of the Villa Antonia-Lo Timor farm, around 7,000 square metres are located in the municipality of Torrevieja.
“The arrival of the plant would create far more problems than many people imagine. There would be the incessant noise of heavily ladened trucks, arriving day and night, carrying tons of waste from the most populated municipalities, and this with the emissions of polluting gases to the environment, plus the discomfort of the smell. The smell of waste would be evident across the municipality as an easterly wind generally predominates. It would be impossible to live near the waste plant and I would almost dare to say in the town,” said Cllr Costa.
Currently the town’s PP government and UPyD are against the project. At the last plenary meeting the mayor said “I have always been suspicious of this project. I do not want my town to become the dump of the Vega Baja”.
Meanwhile, consortium managers are studying the viability of the project and, if it meets their requirements, the construction and operation of a waste treatment plant would be opened to public tender, although according to Pineda that does not mean that it will definitely be built or installed in San Miguel, since the companies that enter the tender programme will have to propose the location.
