The Minister of Sustainable Development of the Council of Communities, Mercedes Gómezrevealed on Wednesday that the animal carcass treatment company Animal By Products (ABP Solutions), responsible for collecting carcasses for treatment in Puertollano throughout Castilla-La Mancha, had accumulated four sanction files since the end of the year, after inspections that revealed breaches contrary to the integrated environmental authorization, as well as non-conformities in terms of industrial safety.
These sanctioning procedures, he explained, led to the preventive suspension of the integrated environmental authorization of this industry. Thus, questioned by journalists after her intervention at the summer course of the University of Castilla-La Mancha “The keys to a sustainable energy future, a necessary commitment”, held in Puertollano, the councilor stressed that after the preventive suspension after the authorization, the company was asked to improve its production system with certain corrective measures.
A procedure “still in progress” at the time when Department of Sustainable Development received notification of the intervention of Seprona of the Civil Guard, which is investigating this industry for serious breaches of environmental and labor safety.
According to Gómez, the regional government is now waiting for the Civil Guard and the competent court or even the environmental prosecutor’s office to communicate possible additional measures regarding the sanction files.
In any case, Gómez insisted that the action of the Department of Sustainable Development began at the end of the year, before the intervention of the Civil Guard after the complaint of the neighbors and the company that transports this waste.
The advisor stressed that the files are not closed, given their preventive nature, “so depending on how events develop, the sanction would go from serious to very serious, although the greatest sanction, in addition to the economic sanction, is the withdrawal of the integrated environmental authorization that does not allow the company to continue operating.
Asked about the continuity of animal carcass collection service in Castilla-La Manchaof which this company was the concessionaire, the advisor referred it to the competent body, in this case the Ministry of Agriculture.
