WRITTEN QUESTION E-3871/02

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(10 January 2003)

Subject: Construction of the Western Landfill Utility (Aterro Sanitário do Oeste)

Further to Commissioner Margot Wallström's answer of 12 February 2001 to question E-3979/00(1), by the author of the present question, on the construction of the Western Landfill Utility (Aterro Sanitário do Oeste) at Cadaval (Portugal), can the Commission provide information on its subsequent positions with regard to this landfill and the decision it has arrived at, as asked for in the earlier question?

(1) OJ C 187 E, 3.7.2001, p. 97.

Answer given by Ms Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2003)

Further to its previous reply, the Commission informs the Honourable Member that at its meeting of 30 October 2002 it decided to terminate proceedings in the case of complaint 2000/4668 relating to the construction of the Western Landfill Utility.

Having compared the explanations supplied by the Portuguese authorities with the plaintiffs' statements, the Commission considered that there was no Community legal basis for further investigating the complaint.

Urban landfill projects are included in Annex II to Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(1), which means that by virtue of Article 4(2) of the Directive they are the type of project for which the performance of an impact assessment is left to the discretion of the national authorities. This discretionary power may be limited by Article 2 of the Directive, which says that projects likely to have significant effects on the environment must be made subject to an assessment with regard to their effects. It is nevertheless for the Member States to analyse whether or not a given project may have significant effects on the environment. Such an analysis was in fact carried out in the case in point by means of a number of environmental impact studies and it did not indicate that the project was likely to involve any significant environmental effects.

Furthermore, the construction and operation of the landfill were made subject to the guarantees and technical requirements contained in the new landfill Directive Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste(2) even though the Directive was not yet applicable to the project. The project authorisation was therefore preceded by a descriptive memorandum containing information on the geological, geotechnical and hydrological characteristics of the site, the waterproofing system, the rainwater and residual water drainage system, the control and monitoring of the residual water and underground water,

the drainage and treatment of the biogas, and the safety of the population and workers. As regards waterproofing in particular, in the execution phase of the project a 0,5 metre thick layer of clay plus a synthetic composite liner was laid so as to create a geological barrier with a total permeability compatible with the requirements of the abovementioned Directive.

Finally, it should be noted that this landfill has been granted an environmental permit by the Directorate-General for the Environment in accordance with the legislation transposing Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control(3). This permit established a programme of environmental monitoring of the landfill with which the operator is required to comply throughout the operation, closure and post-closure maintenance phases.

(1) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.

(2) OJ L 182, 16.7.1999.

(3) OJ L 257, 10.10.1996.