Ecologists in Action warns that smoke has become “a health and public health problem”
Ecologists in Action of the Marina Alta has sent a letter to Seprona and the Dean of Dénia court, calling for the immediate closure of Ramblars, which has been burning for more than two months . They warn that keeping it open and continuing to pour garden debris and pruning debris into it is dangerous . “Tens of metres from the flames there is a huge amount of piled materials , especially pruning remains,” Also, they refer to the ” mountains of waste and furniture that are accumulated from before the fire”.
Environmentalists stress that the plant does not have basic fire prevention measures. They ask for the closure also because ” Ramblars lacks a license “. They indicate that 40,000 cubic metres of vegetable waste have been burning since November 21st , “among which other waste such as plastics are mixed.”
In their letter, they refer to a telephone conversation between the regional secretary of Ecologistes en Acció, Ferran Polo , with the person in charge of managing this area of green waste transfers. The latter, according to the letter, recognised that there was a danger that new mountains of waste would catch fire, but argued that the company that performs the service, Biomasa del Guadalquivir, has no other place to collect them. Another reason they build up is a broken shredding machine .
Environmentalists call for the “urgent provisional closure ” of this transfer plant. They maintain that it is justified to transfer this request to the court as, for two months, “the city council has not taken the appropriate measures ” to safeguard public health and continues to allow green remains to be deposited there. “The current fire could increase considerably in size if any ash or embers moved by the wind caught fire in those piles,” they warn.
And they emphasise,”the dense smoke” from the fire arrives “in the form of fog to the Arenal, Javea old town and Gata and to numerous scattered houses and urbanisations.” Smoke, they say, “is a real health and public health problem, especially if you take into account that among the plant remains there are also other kinds of remains, such as plastic bags.”
Story Source: Levante
