Environmental association, ZERO, has filed a complaint at the European Commission against the Portuguese State regarding the planned conversion of Air Base No. 6 in Montijo, into a commercial airport.
The basis of the objection is the government’s non-compliance with its own Strategic Environmental Assessment legislation during the decision-making process for the construction of a new commercial airport at Montijo, to take the pressure off Lisbon International Airport.
ZERO says the process has not been transparent from the start and since early 2017 the association has been alerting the authorities as to the requirement to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment prior to any decision over Montijo.
The government did commission an Environmental Impact Assessment which ZERO says is limited in scope and inappropriate for a project with the size and impact of Montijo.
There has been no response to ZERO’s reasoned communications to the Minister of Planning and Infrastructures, the Secretary of State for Infrastructures and to the President of the Portuguese Environment Agency, all asking about the category of environmental assessment procedure that has been commissioned.
There have been several news items published in recent months, informing the public that an Environmental Impact Assessment is being carried out by Portugal’s airports management company, ANA, but the government’s response to a number of critical issues, has been absent.
The government is determined to see Montijo airport converted, come what may, and commissioned an ‘Impact Assessment Lite.’ The executive has made its position clear, through the Minister of Planning and Infrastructures, Pedro Marques who, despite the "relevant issues" raised by the APA (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente) which should have triggered the more thorough Strategic Impact Assessment, expects works to begin next year.
It is clear that the government has made up its mind over the new airport and, by using only the environmental assessment tools that will give a positive outcome, is planning to start work before appropriate studies are completed.
ZERO rightly claims that the government is hardly being transparent and its actions are “a clear and blatant subversion of the underlying principle that the Environmental Assessment procedures are a decision support tool,” as and that a Strategic Environmental Assessment would cover, not only of the effects on the environment but also the effects on the quality of life of the local population.
The requirement for a Strategic Environmental Assessment legally is required in accordance with national and European legislation.
ZERO lists the reasons:
1. An airport of this size (Montijo) is considered to be a major public undertaking with a territorial impact and is therefore considered unequivocally a sectoral project under Portuguese national legislation and should be subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment.
2. The location of Montijo airport is bordered to the north by the Special Protection Area of the Tagus Estuary. The airport will create unavoidable effects on birds. An airport adjacent to any special protection zone, under national and European legislation, clearly qualifies for a Strategic Environmental Assessment.
ZERO already has identified a number of critical aspects that should be given particular attention:
a. The impact on land use planning - the relocation and distribution of various activities, namely of real estate, tourism, logistics and accessibility;
b. Nature conservation - the proximity to the Special Protection Zone and the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve can cause problems in terms of the impact on the avifauna and the risk to the aircraft operations;
c. Noise - new and high noise levels are expected to affect the riverside populations on the south bank of the Tagus while the noise levels are not due to decrease at the Lisbon International Airport as a result of opening Montijo;
d. Accessibilities - the installation of an airport requires road and railway infrastructures that will imply increased impacts on the area and its population. The Environmental Impact Assessment, with its conveniently limited scope, does not cover these aspects - only a Strategic Environmental Assessment would develop the exhaustive and rigorous evaluation that the Montijo project, looking at the next 40 years, imposes.
EU guidelines on Strategic Environmental Assessments, published by the European Commission in 2004, precisely fit this type of project, especially when located near a Special Protection Zone.
Regardless of the complaint now submitted to the European Commission, ZERO expects the Portuguese Government to reconsider its position and to suspend the rather convenient Environmental Impact Assessment and start work on a proper Strategic Environmental Assessment.
If the government continues to press ahead, while clearly twisting the rules to suit its own preferred outcome, ZERO does not rule out a court case in Portugal, something it anyway is preparing for.
