Comité Cidadán de Emerxencia para a Ría de Ferrol

Venres, 07 de Xullo de 2006

Address to the Biologists at the II International Congress, Biological research station of A Graña (In Ferrol on July 7,2006)

In name of more than 50 entities that support the Civil Committee of Emergency for the Bay of Ferrol, reports the following facts:

The Bay of Ferrol has 0,22 km3, that is to say 220 million of m3, holding therefore very little water in comparison with other bays of Galicia. Since the year 1989 there is an integral sanitizing project of the entire Bay of Ferrol. At present, however, only the north shore project is under construction, in the Town halls of Neda, Narón and Ferrol. It is expected to be operative by the year 2009, with a station filter system in Prioriño Cape, which will pour purified spill into the open sea through an ocean pipeline, the completion of which is announced for the year 2011. A project of integral sanitizing for the south shore has not been yet developed.



Nowadays in the Bay of Ferrol approximately a thousand families earn a livelihood on seafood fisheries, in spite of the direct spilt that now exists, both of an urban and industrial character. As soon as the entire integral sanitizing project is finished, production in the seafood industry will increase sizeably, and estimates are that the number of seafood workers will grow over two thousand, that is to say, doubling in size.

The delay of 17 years in the integral sanitizing of the Bay contrasts with the industrial spill in its south shore, where a Gas Plant of LNG is constructed by the Company Reganosa together with storage tanks of 600.000 m3 of Natural Liquefied Gas. The Plant is attached to a Petrochemical Complex. This will threaten the life of thousands of citizens and the means of earning a livelihood of a thousand families that live from the extraction of the shellfish. This danger would increase with the entry of a great number of ships with LNG. In this Petrochemical Complex there is already a storage site with 300.000 m3 of combustible and other chemical products from a factory of urea resin and a melaminic
paper mill. The Gas Plant project was authorized on February 13 of 2004.

The company Reganosa has relied on the complicity of the previous Central and Autonomic Governments, in spite of a judicial decision of the High Court of Justice of Galicia that in June of 2004 annulled the false environmental report for Reganosa that was produced by the Conselleria of Environment of the Xunta of Galicia. The company and Xunta then resorted to the Supreme Court, in the mean time the company has accelerated the construction works and announced the entry into operation for the year 2007.

The Emergency Civil Committee for the Bay of Ferrol, was constituted in July 2001, with the honorary presidency of the General D. Jose Gabeiras Montero, now deceased. Administrative and judicial measures have been taken, with the support of more than 50 civil, cultural and environmental entities. The Spanish Government, the Autonomic Galicia Government, the European Commission and the Ombudsman know the problem. They are waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court and the regular courts in eleven litigation trials. The European Commission as well has admitted to process an assessment for infringement by the Spanish State on the year 2003. Last June 27 we have appealed
to the Minister of Industry not to authorize Reganosa's operation, and we have demanded that it should be located outshore in the Artabro Gulf, or in the Exterior Port of Prioriño Cape that was designed as a location in it the LNG Gas Plant. In Annex 1 we attach our newsletter number 12 on Reganosa's threat.

Reganosa is constructing a warming system for the LNG from the -160 ºC up to the 10 ºC, with vaporizers of the "OPEN RACK" type --open circuit-- that would make use of a great volume of sea water, some 26.400 m3 per hour, almost 600.000m3 per day. This great volume of sea water, more than double the volume of the Rio Jubia, would be poured sterilized in the Bay at a temperature 8º degrees cooler and with remains of chlorine (hypochlorite). This would eventually destroy the wealth in seafood produce, since water renovation is very limited in the Bay of Ferrol and in bad sea weather it can be almost null for several weeks.

Fishermen's organizations in other countries are demanding that vaporizers of the type "OPEN RACK" are not used even off shore, because the sterilizing effect kills thousands of million marine micro organisms, larvae, ovocytes, etc., that is to say, it eliminates from the sea water the base of the trophic chain. In Annex 2 we include the arguments for a LNG Plant OFFSHORE, 50 miles away from the Louisiana coast, called Port Pelican. In its request to the autonomic organism “Aguas of Galicia” for an authorization to pour this great volume of sterilized water inshore, the company Reganosa has instrumentally used a report of the University of Vigo. In Annex 3 we attach the conclusions of the above mentioned report which is tolerant with the lethal spill that Reganosa projects, including the names and signatures of its three authors, among them Doctor Victoriano Urgorri. Likewise in Annex 4 we attach the reply to that report in our allegations.

In The United States several projects of LNG Gas Plant in offshore locations have been cancelled already because of open circuit vaporizers. On the other hand, we have information that “Forestal del Atlántico S.A” Petrochemical Complex has poured in the last 10 years spills of urea resin, phenol, formaldehydes and ammonia, in addition to mud from decantation mixed with detergents that could explain the big spots that are appearing in the
surface of the water in he Bay at Ferrol. In Annex 5 we attach information of these spills, with a technical report by Dr. Carlos Piñeiro describing the different products concerned.
The collection of vieira (scallop) has been prohibited for approximately 10 years because of the excess of amnesic toxin, when tons of vieira exist in the bay. We are hoping that the scientific and biological community studies the spill, its nature, causes and effects in the biodiversity of the Bay. The silence of the Biological research station of A Graña is amazing when it does not acknowledge the existing industrial spill in Cape Promontory, whereas the Doctor Urgorri, in erroneous declarations about the problems of the Bay, points as their main cause the Exterior Port of End Prioriño the construction of which was initiated in November, 2001.

On account of all the above, we propose that one of the conclusions of your II Congress should be that the Biological Research Station of A Graña, in an agreement with the Town Halls of the Bay, should develop the means and programs for assessing the spills in real time and producing a trustworthy analysis. These measures were already contemplated in the initial 1977 grant for the Petrochemical Complex existing in Punta Promontoiro. This will enable detection of the pollutants through the spilt in the proximity of the Petrochemical Complex. Moreover, we propose that a second conclusion be the study of the convenience of displacing the above mentioned industrial facilities to the Exterior Port before July 3, 2017, when the grant expires. All of it, in order to avoid damages to the natural wealth of the Bay and to the health of the population.
In Ferrol on July 7, 2006

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