Sacyr : The Regional Minister for Environment and Land Planning of the Andalusia Regional Government, José Fiscal, attended the opening of the experimental acid water treatment plant developed by Sacyr

01/08/2016

The LIFE-ETAD project, entering monitoring phase in Huelva, has been jointly developed with the University of Huelva and the Andalusia Regional Government

The Regional Minister for Environment and Land Planning of the Andalusia Regional Government, José Fiscal, attended the opening of the experimental treatment plant, in the municipality of Almonaster la Real (Huelva).

Sacyr Construcción led the initiative and is the partner in charge of execution of the works, while the University of Huelva provided the knowledge and research for the passive treatment system to be experimented in this project. The Regional Ministry for Environment and Land Planning is present in this project through the Environment and Water Agency (entity in charge of designing the plant).

Given that the Odiel River basin has some of the most polluted waters in the world, the validation here of this treatment system will allow to export this technology to other territories with the same problems, while making mining activities feasible from the environmental perspective.

This project, led by Sacyr, has just completed the experimental phase and is starting the acid mine drainage treatment monitoring and results assessment; these are waters that suffered a pH drop to acidic levels, and are found in areas where mining has taken place.

The LIFE-ETAD project is financed by the EU LIFE financial instrument. Of the global 2.6 million budget provided to this LIFE project, 49.9% come from community funds, and the rest was provided by the shareholders.

The following persons took part in the opening act, in this order: Jacinto José Vázquez López, Mayor of Almonaster la Real; Daniel Sánchez-Rodas Navarro, Head of the Research Results Transfer Office under the University of Huelva; Antonio Ramírez, Head of Innovation at Sacyr Construcción; José Luis Ramos Rodríguez, Deputy Chairman Provincial Council of Huelva and José Fiscal López, Regional Minister for Environment and Land Planning, who highlighted that 'Very important steps have been taken lately, both for recovery of river basins contaminated by past mining activities, and to guarantee in future that mining can be a sustainable and environmentally viable industry'.