"They want to build an industrial park at Sant Carles Castle": MÁS criticizes the APB's plan for the Palma dock

PalmThe MÉS party for Mallorca has revealed the Balearic Islands Port Authority's (APB) project to build a "major liquid waste facility" at the Sant Carles dock in the port of Palma. This infrastructure would be designed to manage flammable and hazardous materials, including those originating from outside the port. The eco-sovereignist party warns that this initiative poses "an immediate and serious threat" to Sant Carles Castle and the Portopí Signal Tower, both listed as Cultural Heritage Sites (BIC). MÉS's representative in Congress, Vicenç Vidal, and the MÉS spokesperson for Palma, Neus Truyol, explained at a press conference that the project violates heritage protection regulations and demanded urgent action from all the administrations involved. "Turning this space into a waste disposal plant is an attack on heritage, the landscape, the environment, and common sense. No responsible government should allow it," Vidal declared.

• For his part, Truyol warned that "the project data shows that the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) and the Balearic Islands Government want to transform the old port of Palma into an industrial zone." He also denounced the "scandalous opacity and secrecy of the APB and the Prohens Government." According to MÉS, the consequences of the initiative have never been clearly explained, nor have the residents of Palma been informed or consulted. The party is therefore requesting the intervention of the Ministries of Culture and Transport to protect the heritage site from what they consider "an attack" by both administrations. They are also demanding that the Spanish government, the Balearic Islands Government, the Palma City Council, and the APB immediately halt any procedures or construction related to the waste treatment plant and formally delimit the protected areas surrounding the listed cultural heritage sites (BIC). "We cannot accept the construction of an industrial waste plant next to one of Palma's most important heritage sites. This is unacceptable from both an environmental and a heritage perspective," Truyol emphasized. According to the documentation obtained by MÁS, the project envisions: an area of 3,389 m², a buildable area of 28,245 m³, and a height of 10 meters.
• The construction of large storage facilities with a minimum annual capacity of 25,000 m³ of polluting and flammable liquid waste.
• A constant flow of tanker trucks loaded with hazardous waste entering and leaving.
• A maximum treatment of 5 m³/hour, that is, up to 5000 liters per hour.

Suspension of the competition

For all these reasons, MÁS demands the immediate precautionary suspension of the public tender promoted by the APB; the urgent delimitation of the protected areas surrounding the listed cultural assets (BIC) to preserve them from destruction; and the protection of the Ministry of Culture against a project that puts these unique heritage elements at risk. "Either the heritage is protected, or the door is opened to a devastating precedent. Palma has too much to lose," Vidal concluded.