Scientists accept the burying of the Huelva phosphogypsum as an emergency solution that "should not be definitive"

The Phosphogypsum Board, a body for citizen participation to find solutions to the pool of 120 million toxic tons of phosphogypsum stored in the marshland next to Huelva, met Monday morning in the capital of Huelva to analyze the report that The Committee of Experts presented the Consistory in which it questioned Fertiberia's proposal to bury the waste under a depth of one meter.

At the meeting, the president of that committee made up of 20 scientists, José Rodríguez Quintero, warned that this solution "cannot be definitive" and that the burial of these materials "parks and encapsulates" a problem "for which it is necessary to keep looking for a definitive alternative.

Rodríguez explained to this newspaper that in the current situation "we must intervene in some way and buy time" to stop pollution and the impact on public health.

In this situation, burial, "provided that the defects detected" by the group of experts he directs are corrected, "is a first step to buy time", but "it cannot become a definitive solution at all".

Rodríguez, who is also vice-rector for Research and Transfer at the University of Huelva, points out that Feriberia's project is currently the only one developed and that developing another with other alternatives, such as pumping waste, would take years, a margin of which is available.

Experts from very diverse fields, led by Rodríguez, have been working on the situation of the phosphogypsum pool since before 2015 and in July they delivered their conclusions to the Huelva City Council, which did not give it any publicity.

In the document, to which this newspaper had access, in addition to insisting that the burial project proposed by Fertiberia "could not be considered a definitive solution for the restoration and recovery of the marshes" affected by the waste, they also warned of that the project "does not evaluate the impact of the bioaccumulation of toxic substances in the population, nor its possible consequences."

Attention was also drawn to the fact that residents who live closer to the piles have more traces of zinc and arsenic under their fingernails than those who live in more distant neighborhoods.

“The problem is still there”

At this morning's meeting, Rodríguez insisted that although "encapsulating and burying" the waste "is something that must be done", "the problem is still there".

"If in the future there is an intervention that really solves the problem, it should be taken into account," the researcher told the media.

"You have to contain it and continue looking for an alternative that will come when it is technically possible", he has abounded.

The mayor of Huelva, Gabriel Cruz (PSOE), has welcomed the "deficiencies and deficiencies that have been observed" regarding the Feritberia project and has shown his support for "monitoring" of it, but has made it clear that the one who has the final decision is the Junta de Andalucía, which must grant the Integrated Environmental Authorization.

Cruz recalled that the Fosfoyesos Board, made up of political parties, trade unions, neighborhood and environmental associations and the University of Huelva, is an advisory body and that Fertiberia's proposal is not only the "only serious one that is underway", but it has the Environmental Impact Statement from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

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