View of the Mar Menor, with some crop fields in the foreground.Pedro Martínez
The Superior Court of Justice of Murcia (TSJ) has taken several steps this week to advance in the protection of the Mar Menor.
On the one hand, it has confirmed that the autonomous community is the competent body to sanction agricultural companies in Campo de Cartagena for their polluting discharges into the salty lagoon, not the State.
And, on the other hand, it condemns a company to uproot 4.91 hectares of irrigated crops, in this case lemon trees, to replace them with other rainfed crops, as established by law.
The two sentences have been made public in the last 48 hours and require compliance with the regulations for the integral protection of the lagoon, which establishes limits on agriculture to prevent the entry of water contaminated by nitrates into an ecosystem that is in a state of collapse. for years.
Specifically, the court requires an agricultural operation that is located in the area of Casa de lo Pereas, in the maximum protection area established by law, to uproot its irrigated crops and restore the farm to its natural state, with crops dry land
The company had rejected the order that the Murcian Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Environment had sent in this regard.
He alleged that the farm has been dedicated to irrigated crops since 1945, 40 years before the entry into force of the Water Law that establishes the authorizations for this type of exploitation.
However, the TSJ points out in its ruling that the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) already warned this exploitation in 2019 that it did not have permits to use the water, in the same way that it had done with another 9,500 hectares of illegal crops. .
The ruling adds that the law of the Mar Menor is clear in determining that illegal irrigation must be restored to its original state.
The agricultural company, the court insists, has not been sanctioned, nor is it being deprived of the property of the farm, and it is given a period of two months to present a project to restore rainfed crops and six months to execute it.
This is the second ruling that the TSJ issues to reverse irrigation in the Mar Menor protection zone;
the first was known in November 2021 and ordered the uprooting of another 4.99 hectares of citrus in the same area.
Distribution of powers
In addition, in another sentence made public this Thursday, the TSJ determines that it is the Ministry of the Environment of Murcia, and not the Segura Hydrographic Confederation, which depends on the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, which must open environmental responsibility files to the agricultural companies for the damage caused to the Mar Menor with its discharges.
The sentence refers to eight companies that the Prosecutor's Office requested that they be sanctioned for emitting polluting discharges from illegal desalination plants.
However, the autonomous community did not open the required sanctioning files, but instead issued a report in which it considered that the competent administration to launch this mechanism was the hydrographic confederation, since the damage would have been caused to the public hydraulic domain, sea and land.
Now the court gives a blow to the Government of Fernando López Miras and considers that "the natural resource affected [by the discharges] is clearly identified, that is, it is the Mar Menor", for which "the demand for environmental responsibility is not made for damage to the hydraulic public domain, but to the Mar Menor, and is independent of the sanctioning procedures that the Segura Hydrographic Confederation initiates, where appropriate”.
"The issue focuses on environmental responsibility for discharges into the Mar Menor, so the competence to demand it belongs to the autonomous community," the ruling insists.
At the same time, it warns of the "serious state of deterioration that the lagoon presents".
The Ministry of the Environment has stated its intention to abide by that sentence and open the corresponding files against the affected companies.
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