Seprona and the Prosecutor's Office are already investigating the water management of Ibiza airport

PalmaThe Civil Guard is already investigating the two complaints that GEN-GOB filed regarding water management at Ibiza airport, as confirmed by the entity to ARA Balears. The Nature Protection Service (Seprona) has opened proceedings on the two fronts that the environmentalists have brought to their attention: on one hand, the water supply of the airport premises and the management of the saline waste generated by its treatment and, on the other, the wastewater and spills detected in the surroundings of Es Codolar. The Environmental Prosecutor's Office has also confirmed to this newspaper that it is investigating the case.

One of the two complaints that Seprona is already investigating precisely concerns the way the airport obtains and treats the water it consumes. Neus Prats, from GEN-GOB, asserts that the facility that treats the water from the wells—which the entity defines as a desalination plant—was not processed administratively in an appropriate manner.

“This desalination plant was never processed and it is the one that supplies water to the airport,” states Prats. As she explains, the process necessarily generates waste with a high concentration of salts and GEN-GOB suspects that this brine ends up returning to the subsoil. “We are talking about millions of liters every year,” she assures.

Prats maintains that Aena has gone as far as to deny that the facility generates this waste. “Obviously, a desalination plant generates brine. That was the first thing we reported because we consider that it violates natural resources,” affirms the environmentalist spokesperson. GEN-GOB considers this situation especially delicate because the airport draws water from wells on an island where a large part of the aquifers suffer from strong pressure. The Water Alliance estimated this summer that 12 of the 16 groundwater bodies in Ibiza extract more water than allocated and account for 78% of all groundwater pumped on the island.

“Aena draws all the water from overexploited wells and is affecting them in a way that we consider irreversible,” denounces Prats.

And the problem continues to generate new episodes. The Water Alliance has documented a spill at a different point from those that had previously been the focus of the complaints, at the Cirer torrent, near the Còdols path. The entity has taken samples that will be analyzed in an accredited laboratory and has announced that it will forward the images, location, and results to Seprona and the Prosecutor's Office. At this moment, however, it is not yet known what the origin of the water is or if it presents contamination.

Aena, for its part, maintains that the water extractions are legal. The airport operator has stated that the facility is supplied through five authorized private wells, in addition to rainwater collection and the reuse of reclaimed water, and that the extractions remain within the authorized volumes. It also asserts that it reports extraction and consumption data to the competent authorities.

The treatment plant, the second complaint

The second complaint from GEN-GOB being investigated by the Civil Guard focuses on the airport's wastewater and the spills into the Font torrent, which flows into the Codolar area, near the Ses Salines Natural Park. A complaint that has also been publicly formulated by the Water Alliance, which also commissioned some analyses this summer. Four samples taken between June and July detected organic and fecal contamination. According to the Alliance, in the worst cases, the biological oxygen demand exceeded the applicable limit by 17 times. The complaint reached Seprona, which transferred it to the Environmental Prosecutor's Office.

The Government also has its own administrative file open. At the beginning of September, the file was still under investigation and the precautionary ban on Aena discharging water into the Font torrent remained in place.

For GEN-GOB, however, this is not an isolated episode. Prats maintains that the infrastructure's capacity is not sufficient to handle the airport's current activity and denounces that, after the spills into the torrent were made public, the way a part of the water is managed has changed. “Since we caught them dumping water into the torrent, now they dedicate themselves to spreading the dirty water throughout the premises with sprinklers. They just spread it around and that’s it,” states Neus Prats. Neighbors in the area have also reported bad odors and the use of water to irrigate land near the runways in recent weeks.

Aena maintains that it has authorization to reuse treated water from the treatment plant for irrigating its own gardens and green areas and, regarding previous episodes, has assured that the water reaching the torrent was “treated and regenerated”.

A new spill point at the Cirer torrent

The case added another element this Tuesday. Aliança per l’Aigua documented a new spill on September 21st at a wall bordering the Cirer torrent, near the Camí dels Còdols, a different point from the Font torrent that had been the focus of complaints until now. Local residents recorded photographs and videos and sent them to the organization.

Aliança has collected samples that have been sent to an accredited laboratory. There are no results yet, and therefore, it cannot be stated that this water is sewage or that it presents the contamination detected in previous episodes. The organization wants to determine precisely if the same parameters found in the Font torrent are being repeated.

There is, furthermore, a physical connection between the two watercourses that should be explained well: the airport's official environmental documentation states that the Cirer torrent flows into the Font torrent, which then continues along the side of the airport facility to the Mediterranean.

Aliança per l’Aigua considers that the appearance of this new point reinforces the need to clarify if there is a structural problem in the management of the airport's wastewater. The organization has announced that it will send the new documentation to Seprona and the Public Prosecutor's Office so that it can be incorporated into the open proceedings.

All of this is happening with the airport located right next to the Ses Salines d’Eivissa i Formentera Natural Park and while the debate over the growth of the infrastructure continues. Prats maintains a very critical position: “If environmental regulations were applied, Ibiza airport would have to be closed”.