The Juneda gasification project, a dispute without common ground

Last year, GAP, the Ponent Agricultural and Livestock Management cooperative, which brings together 160 farmers from Les Garrigues and Pla d'Urgell, treated more than 70,000 tonnes of surplus slurry (pig manure) at the Tracjusa plant in Juneda. It still does so today with cogeneration, a system that uses natural gas to evaporate the water from the slurry. After a quarter of a century in operation, at the end of this year the plant will stop receiving subsidies for its operation and will no longer be profitable. After years of searching for a way out, farmers have thought that their best option is to use the current facilities to continue drying slurry through a new system, gasification. This involves producing steam from recovered fuel, mostly urban waste. These are the famous CDRs, provided by the Griñó Group (now associated with GAP). CDRs are waste that cannot be recycled and are converted into fuel here. The plant will handle 45,000 tons of RDF per year, which many consider an aberration, because it means treating the garbage produced in cities in Juneda. But without this garbage, there would not be a sufficiently profitable source of heat. Of course, it will be Catalan garbage (from the metropolitan area), they say at the GAP, in response to Griñó's controversial investigation into possible illegal trafficking of Italian garbage.

Gasification is a thermochemical process, like incineration, but it differs from the latter because it uses very little oxygen and transforms organic compounds into a gas that is to be used for energy. It is synthesis gas, which must be filtered to clean it in a circuit that should be closed.

In addition, the heat produced by the Juneda gasification plant will allow the slurry to be dried to convert it into fertilizer that is easy to transport and market. "CO2 emissions will be reduced by 80% with gasification," they promise. Regarding dioxins and foreign pollutants, one of the main fears of the opposition, the farmers assure that they will remain below the legal thresholds and much more so of any type of combustion.

The opposition platform fears that the theory of gasification will end up blowing up in practice. "We have demonstrated, after visiting many similar plants in Germany, that the process to maintain the parameters of heat and oxygen is technically so complicated that in the end it will end up being incinerated," say members of the platform. The ball is therefore in the court of the Generalitat, in charge of monitoring the emissions of Nova Tracjusa. But not only that. The GAP is committed to publishing all the emissions of the plant. "Nobody forces us, nor have the opposition ever asked us to do so," they say.

It is true that in Poniente there is extreme concern about air quality. The persistent winter fogs cause compounds and particles to become trapped. The latest studies by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) indicate that in December the levels of nitrates, sulphates, microparticles, ammonium, chlorine and potassium in the atmosphere soar, in many cases above those of Barcelona city. Andrés Alastuey, coordinator of the latest study, admits that the indicators (although too high to comply with the European directive set for 2030) are still below the current legal limit and below areas that are much more environmentally affected, such as the plain of Vic. But at the same time he recommends that the Government install meters for the finest particles (below 2.5 microns) in Juneda, as these are the ones that can cause cancer.

Changed scenario

One of the initial arguments for choosing gasification was the economic benefit. The cooperative, which in its assembly approved never to distribute dividends among partners, recalls that years ago it had estimated an annual income of 1.2 million with the future gasification of waste. Now they say that the scenario has changed. The Repsol plant in Tarragona, which will treat 400,000 tons of urban waste each year, has modified the demand and the prices offered for its treatment have plummeted. However, due to the orographic characteristics of Les Garrigues, gasification is defended as the ideal model and "sensed" by the promoters.

"The authorization has been excessively rigorous," says the president of the GAP, Eduard Cau. But you see how the mayor of Les Borges Blanques, Josep Farran, one of the main political leaders opposed to the project, denounces the nocturnality of the process, which gave him authorization "in a caretaker government" in 2021. The ranchers reply that those in charge of approving the environmental license are not, a priori, the politicians. An example: Isabel Hernández is still today the deputy director of prevention and control of atmospheric pollution of the Generalitat. She has been so since 2006.

In any case, more than twenty town councils, almost all governed by ERC and independent parties, have shown their explicit rejection by calling for popular consultations this March to ask for the opinion of the residents and transfer it to the Generalitat. The strategy is to stop the last administrative step pending for the execution of the project: the building permit of the Juneda Town Council, a procedure that seems imminent to comply with the GAP plan to launch Nova Tracjusa in 2026.

The mayors justify the consultations to give space for participation and debate. However, the meeting points between defenders and detractors of Nova Tracjusa are almost non-existent. In fact, the newspaper ARA has tried unsuccessfully to organise a meeting between Eduard Cau and a political representative of the opposing movement. None of the mayors requested have wanted to participate. "After eight years, it is no longer time for debate," they argue. "We have nothing to say in the GAP, we want to go further and urge the Generalitat and the council to define their territorial model," justify others. Meanwhile, mayors of Junts remain silent, a sign of the intense politicisation of the issue.