The controversial macro-chicken farm that the company Avícola Son Perot has proposed to build in Sineu (Mallorca) has faced a new obstacle: the Consell de Mallorca has decided to publish an unfavourable report on the project, which has generated strong rejection among neighbours, the Sineu Town Hall and animal and environmental associations. The island institution opposes the initiative, among other reasons, for not referring to certain mandatory municipal and regional regulations.
The company wants to build up to ten warehouses in which 750,000 chickens will be crammed to produce around 156 million eggs per year. According to Greenpeace, it will be the most polluting macro-farm in the entire Spanish territory: “If we compare it with other industrial poultry farms in operation, only in terms of ammonia emissions, a toxic gas with harmful effects on the environment and human health, this industrial farm would become the most polluting poultry macro-farm in the country.
Furthermore, according to the environmental organization, the installation will consume more than 61,000 m3/year of water – the equivalent of about 25 Olympic swimming pools, or a third of the estimated consumption for the city of Sineu – in a municipality that, alone, suffers from high pressure on its water resources. “It is nonsense and an aberration, we have not been able to consume our own water for more than ten years and they are going to install installations that will cause us even more problems,” the neighbors lament in this report from elDiario.es.
Arguments against the island council
The island institution considers that the project presented does not “make any reference to current municipal planning”, nor to the “procedure for activities subject to integrated environmental authorisation (AAI), nor to the documentation required by the environmental impact study (AIA).” Likewise, it stressed to the company that it is necessary to make “direct reference” to the urban planning regulations of Sineu and to “justify compliance with the conditions that are not subject to exemption.”
In this sense, it asks you to comply with the regulations that regulate the protection of trees, open-air excavations – since they are planned in an area of mining interest – or manure discharges, since “it is not allowed that these affect “agricultural, livestock, forest land or that are located in the bed of watercourses, in picturesque landscapes and near population areas or tourist areas.” It also asks you to protect picturesque rural properties or comply with the legislation on the storage of rainwater.
Furthermore, the report of the Consell de Mallorca observes that alongside the technical project, a series of information plans are provided whose “origin is not indicated” and “neither justified nor analysed, in the technical project report, if these represent conditions or limits for the project.
In any case, he stressed that the project must request a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment so that it can define whether it is an area of great agricultural interest or authorize the activities and uses of the primary sector and agricultural processing industries of the secondary sector.
Regarding the urban planning aspect, he stressed that “there is a lack of justification for compliance with the current planning of Sineu”. Regarding the integrated environmental permit, he stressed that it must be accompanied by the municipal urban planning report in which it is proven that the project is adapted to the current urban planning and take into account that once the integrated environmental permit is granted, it will have to be processed and have the municipal urban planning permit.
