The incompetence if the Algarve’s waste handling company, Algar, gain has been on full display with the company admitting that untreated leachate* from the Sotavento Sanitary Landfill in Salir is polluting the Vascão river.The Sotavento Landfill Monitoring Commission met in Loulé on Tuesday to confront Algar, the company that is meant to be managing the landfill site, as the pollution was known to be leaching into the river.
The meeting was called as a matter of urgency by the mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo, who also chairs the commission made up of 20 entities, including council chiefs and the Regional Development Commission - Algarve.
Algar's managers at least took responsibility for the foul liquids flowing into the Vascão, adding most generously that the company “is willing to invest in repairing the damage.”
"It's a very serious situation. Algar also recognised its gravity. I asked if they were willing to pay for the damage caused to the water and they said ‘yes,’" explained mayor, Vítor Aleixo, in statements to Jornal do Algarve, adding that the GNR is investigating the incident and the Algarve Hydrographic Region Administration has water samples to analyse.
The contamination that reached the Vascão came from a damaged treatment station. Aleixo, who presented a set of proposals at that meeting, explained that Algar, "has to repair everything that need to be repaired," adding that, “these situations cannot happen again."
Aleixo and his committee colleagues approved a proposal that the leaking landfill site will be made by an independent inspector.
"It is necessary that reports are made by a third party and not by Algar technicians. In this way, we feel safer, more confident and more relaxed," said Vítor Aleixo in a stark admission that he does not trust Algar to produce an objective report into its own failures.
The Sotavento Sanitary Landfill site is the parish of Salir, Loulé and serves Alcoutim, Castro Marim, Faro, Loulé, Olhão, São Brás de Alportel, Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António.
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* A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences where it has the specific meaning of a liquid that has dissolved or entrained environmentally harmful substances that may then enter the environment. It is most commonly used in the context of land-filling of putrescible or industrial waste.