The Government investigates the dumping of more than three tons of asphalt in Petra

PetraThe Government has already taken the first step in the proceedings arising from the complaint by the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard for the dumping of more than three tons of chipped asphalt remains on various rural paths and public spaces in Petra.

The Waste and Contaminated Soils service of the Directorate General of Circular Economy, Energy Transition and Climate Change has opened proceedings and has formally requested information from the Petra City Council and the Consell de Mallorca to clarify the traceability of the waste, the companies involved, and to determine the responsibilities of each party.

Authorized sources from the Ministry of Business, Self-Employed and Energy have confirmed to Tot Pla the start of the actions. Once the investigation is completed, the regional Executive will open a sanctioning procedure if the legality of the dumping is not justified.

Road asphalt

The proceedings aim to ascertain the exact route of the asphalt remains, which come from the improvement works of the Ma-3340 and Ma-3301 roads, carried out by a construction company on behalf of the Department of Roads of the Consell de Mallorca.

In June, Seprona had already requested information from the Exploitation and Conservation service of the Department of Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures of the Consell de Mallorca because "the origin of the alleged waste would be roads of insular ownership, in addition to having originated in tenders granted by the aforementioned supramunicipal institution". At the time of closing the file, the Council had not yet responded to this information request from the Civil Guard.

The main objective of the preliminary proceedings is to verify whether the material reused in up to eight locations in Petra —such as the Rentadors road, the car park at the entrance to the town, and the Train station— had environmental authorization or if, on the contrary, it was an unauthorized waste dumping to save the costs of management and transport to an authorized plant.

Seprona's complaint attributes to the accused —the Petra Town Hall, the construction company of the works, and a local businessman— a serious infringement of the Law on waste and contaminated soils.

The mayor of Petra, Salvador Femenias, acknowledged that he had used the material "in good faith" to fill potholes and create public car parks. "I assumed there was no problem in reusing it, I didn't scrutinize whether there was asphalt in the remains and I didn't think it had to be treated as waste, because we don't do the road works ourselves," he explained. Likewise, the Consell de Mallorca will have to clarify what control it exercised over the road contract and whether the tender provided for specific financial allocations to manage this waste in an authorized center.

If the information provided by the institutions and companies does not prove the legality of the dumpings, the regional Executive will formally open the corresponding sanctioning file.