Even the longest judicial processes come to an end. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) ratified this past July that the mining company Iberpotash (currently ICL Iberia) must dismantle the saline waste dump of Cogulló, in Sallent, a huge landfill against which neighbors and entities have protested for 20 years.
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What was once a simple dumping site turned into an artificial mountain of saline waste covering 45 hectares (about 45 football fields), with about 520 meters in height and around 45 million tons that have disfigured the place.
Cogulló earned the dubious honor of being one of the main ecological risk hotspots in Catalonia, as for years rainfall has caused watercourses that, through runoff and underground springs, have threatened to worsen the salinization of the Llobregat basin.
The ‘judicial via crucis’ began in 2006
Both the TSJC, this past June, and the Supreme Court (last year) have dismissed cassation appeals filed by Iberpotash against the March 6, 2024 ruling in which the judges rejected the company’s attempt to prevent the forced execution of the order issued two years earlier, which reiterated the obligation to dismantle the large Cogulló landfill.
These cassation appeals were the company’s last card to prevent this judicial setback.
The key reference of this litigation dates back to February 18, 2014, when the judges admitted a contentious-administrative appeal filed by the neighborhood association of the Rampinya district of Sallent, which had requested the City Council in 2006 to open a file against Iberpotash to protect urban legality since saline waste was being dumped in an inappropriate area.
The complaints therefore date back to the late 1970s, although the judicial via crucis began in 2006.
In the 2014 ruling, the judges ordered the immediate suspension of saline waste dumping in the Cogulló area and the “restoration of the altered physical reality,” and also agreed on “the dismantling of the accumulated saline waste” outside the area recognized by urban planning.
The company has filed continuous appeals until the litigation was resolved after 20 years
The ruling was ratified on November 14, 2016, but the company kept filing appeal after appeal to higher courts until the neighbors had to demand the execution of the ruling, considering it was being ignored.
Iberpotash and the Sallent City Council argued all this time that they could not suspend the dumping, since these ceased on July 30, 2019, when these deposits stopped.
They also argued that a new regulation of the land was made through the municipal urban planning plan (POUM), which set a maximum temporal limit for dumping that had to end on June 30, 2017, later extended until June 20, 2019.
The judges concluded in 2024 that “the determinations of the POUM cannot imply a covert legalization of illegal actions carried out previously, which are the ones that led to the initiation of the urban legality protection file, especially when the acts were carried out on agricultural land, incompatible with the landfill dumping.”
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According to these rulings – and based on the expansions of the occupied surfaces – between 39 and 40 million tons of saline waste should be removed, of which 33.41 million tons were deposited until the 2014 ruling.
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Complying with rulings: a reflection
The 2024 ruling also included various reflections from the judges reminding that the parties are obliged “to comply with the rulings in the form and terms set forth therein” and that “all persons and public and private entities” must provide “the collaboration required by judges and courts for the proper and complete execution of what has been resolved.” It was recalled that “the right to effective judicial protection is not satisfied by merely theoretical justice, but entails the right to the punctual execution of what has been decided in its own terms”
“When the dumping began, around 1978, there were complaints from the neighbors. Our argument was that since it was earthmoving, we asked the City Council to initiate a file for violation of urban legality and to order the suspension. The City Council did not dare, and against the denial we filed a contentious-administrative appeal,” recalls Climent Fernández, the lawyer for the neighbors of the Rampinya district of Sallent who won the case.
The various judicial rulings in the contentious-administrative case initiated by the neighbors resulted in resolutions that forced the suspension of the Cogulló dumping (which occurred in June 2019) and the establishment of a restoration program for this entire mountain of saline waste in Sallent.
The neighbors have claimed all these years that not “a single cubic meter of saline waste” has been removed or eliminated.
The mass covers 45 hectares and holds 45 million tons of saline waste
ICL says it will “comply” with the judges’ ruling by executing the restoration program
When evaluating the judicial ruling, Iberpotash (now ICL, Israel Chemicals Ltd.) stated: “The company will comply with the judicial ruling by executing the current restoration program, approved by the competent administration in July 2018, taking into account the current situation of the Cogulló saline deposit, which has all the necessary environmental and urban permits. This program foresees the progressive removal of salt from the Sallent deposits.”
Dumping at Cogulló definitively ceased in June 2019 and since then, the deposit has been inactive. “From that moment, all procedures to begin its restoration were initiated, which started once all necessary permits were obtained,” says Iberpotash.
The company says that actions will initially focus on the Botjosa landfill. Subsequently, “the restoration of Cogulló will be carried out progressively, according to the planning, procedures, and controls foreseen in the approved restoration program.”
The other ruling, which convicted the executives and forced the restoration of the salinized areas
On the other hand, the company was ordered by the judges to eliminate the excessive salinity of the waters in the Llobregat and Cardener basins.
This was determined by a ruling from a court in Manresa that in 2014 sentenced three executives of Iberpotash to two years in prison for polluting the waters due to poor management of the waste generated in the salt mines of Súria and Sallent (Bages).
The waste was deposited in landfills (salt dumps) for years without proper waterproofing, causing the leakage of harmful substances.
For this reason, the company was forced to cover the cost of environmental recovery until the high salinity and organic compounds present in the wells of the contaminated area were eliminated, as their waters cannot currently be used for human consumption or livestock.
What to do with the mountain of saline waste?
Meanwhile, the debate continues about the treatment of the real solution required to comply with the rulings and obligations for the ‘mountains of salt.’ All proposals have nuances, with supporters and detractors. One option considered at the time by the company was to sell these saline wastes, but the initiative did not progress because this option has no market outlet as it is not profitable. From municipal instances, and with the support of the local Mining Commission (participation forum), the proposal of a plan that organizes all the mining liabilities left and the phytoremediation of Cogulló is gaining support, since the waterproofing done with the Vilafruns landfill in Balsareny (with Generalitat aid later revoked by the European Commission).
This landfill was covered and waterproofed and finished with trees and shrubs that give it a certain appearance of a natural space. This technical option is endorsed by the MontSalat organization.
But neither the neighbors of Rampiña nor ProuSal agree, because the artificial mountain prevents “the true recovery of the place.” Opponents point out that in any case only some parts would be waterproofed. Also, when heavy rains occur, the risk of leachates would not disappear. “It is difficult to apply this idea to such a large mountain even if slopes were made and it was covered. The Vilafruns landfill is not a reference for us; it is smaller in size,” says lawyer Climent Fernández.
In the case of Vilafruns, the waterproofing was paid with public money, which is something administrations today would not undertake due to the risk of being accused again of “providing state aid.”
ProuSal, La Taula del Llobregat, and @boicoticl consider that, first of all, a plan for the landfills is needed, supervised by the Generalitat, similar to the one made for Erquimia and Flix, carried out by Catalan universities that argue the best way for ICL to comply with the restoration considering technical and social criteria and containing compliance deadlines and penalties in case of non-compliance.
After the closure of the Sallent mine and the cessation of dumping, mining exploitation is now concentrated in Suria (with its landfills in Fustaret and Cabanasses).
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