More than 15,000 tonnes of waste at Pals

For six months, more than 15,000 tonnes of illegal deposits of stones, earth and rubble of unknown origin have devastated the ancient site. Vernegar Pond, a flood-prone area of natural interest with a diversity of amphibians, crustaceans, birdlife, species of heteroptera, coleoptera and trichoptera, small mammals, ichthyofauna and vegetation of helophytic species. It was a Priority Community Interest Habitat (PCIH) with the presence of protected and scarce species at a European level, some of them endangered.

Let's report the uncontrolled dumping, which aims to influence the urban development of Pals beach.

This is a Floodplain, Priority Community Habitat of Interest, which adjoins the Basses d'en Coll Natural Reserve Park within the Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter Natural Park, of high environmental and scenic value..

The origin of the soil and stones in these illegal dumps is unknown. Due to the geological characteristics, they have probably been illegally extracted from a protected area of the PEIN Begur Mountains, Within the municipal district of Begur. This has presumably occurred through deforestation and alteration of its slope.

A few years ago, the owner of the land where this illegal dumping has occurred extracted a large part of the original dune aggregate to sell. More recently, the owner felled the entire pine forest, which was of great environmental importance. Now, they have modified the topography of the original land, which was the old Vernegar pond, with the aim of reducing its floodability, turning it into a desert of stones.

With all this background, the priority habitat of community interest, pine forest on dunes, disappears, affecting ecological values and biodiversity. These facts pave the way for a future with possible artificialisation of the protected area.

More than 6 months of inaction

The Town Hall states that it has asked the owner to stop the illegal dumping, but we have had 6 months of dumping without any licence, which began in May 2021, at which point they were reported and, on 7 June 2021, by the neighbours to the Town Hall, the Natural Park and the forest rangers. Despite this, they have continued with impunity for all these months until the end of October 2021. To this day, an indeterminate amount of between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of stones, earth and rubble, with a volume of between 9,000 and 11,000 m3, have already left the old Vernegar pond with a desolate appearance, eliminating protected fauna and flora.

According to the Town Hall, the owner is carrying them out without a licence with the intention of planting trees, which is not credible because the soil was originally fertile, and now the dumped lands have a large quantity of stones and are of poor quality. This makes the forestry or agricultural use that the planning intends to protect unviable.

Power Distribution Unit

The spills occurred in a forest area near the Paratge Rodors North. Urbanistically classified by General Plan from 1986 as Undeveloped Buildable Land (SUND). Due to its environmental and landscape values, the Master Plan for the review of unsustainable land on the Girona coast (PDU), at article 36, orders its protection and declassification. Furthermore, it determines that the new POUM qualifies the area as Non-Developable Land for forest conservation protection (key F1). This qualification is regulated in articles 232 to 234 of the POUM of Pals.

This area is bordered by the Natural Reserve of Coll's Ponds in the north. Les Basses is part of the Natura 2000 Network (N2000). It is also a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) and forms part of the Montgrí, Illes Medes and Baix Ter Natural Park.

A participant, is delimited by the future North Access Road. The Town Council plans to build this route across the rice fields. These will be divided, with negative effects on the Natural Park. To the east, it borders The Jonquers, an area of natural interest, which also formed part of the old Vernegar lake, now drained. It is currently partly formed by rice fields, an original floodable forest with wetlands, and agricultural fields, which the General Plan described as "false" urban land.

The Town Hall anticipates that a high-rise building will be constructed in this sector, which will also have a negative impact on the Natural Park.

The landfill site is located next to the Jonquils, that the General Plan The 1986 plan envisages development. These are lands of high environmental value with an area of 10,184 m². Along with Paratge Rodors Nord, they formed part of the ancient Vernegar pond, of great faunistic and floristic interest.

The’atogether it plans to build a high-rise building in Jonquers and the Vial Nord, crossing the lake, removing the current information centre and the current access to the Basses of Coll.

The area is flood-prone and of high natural interest with a diversity of amphibians and crustaceans, birdlife, and helophytic plant species, an important habitat for nesting migratory birds, which are scarce on the peninsula.

The Directive 92/43/EEC, designates the Paratge Rodors Nord and the Jonquers as Habitats of Community Interest (HIC) “Priority”, which, according to the Partial territorial plan of the Girona Region approved on 14 September 2010, are Very rare and scarce, of particular connector interest..

The Resolution of case file 7667/2016, from the Ombudsman of 17 February 2017, concerning the General Municipal Urban Planning Plan of Pals, highlights the severe environmental impacts and urban sprawl on Pals beach that the development of Jonquers and Paratge Rodors 1 (North) would entail, as well as the construction of the access road, and we demand its protection.

The Resolution 332/XI of the Parliament of Catalonia, on Pals Beach 250-00424/11 demands of the Government“To protect the Rodors – Roca Blanca sectors in Pals by expanding the PEIN area.” the fact that these landfills are in breach of current municipal planning.

The PDU of unsustainable soils of the Girona coast, of 28 January 2021, de-designates the area where the landfills are located and requires the Town Council to amend the POUM for its protection and preservation by designating it as a special forest protection area.

Environmental memory

According to the environmental memory of this PDU, the importance of preserving this Priority HIC is highlighted at Rodors. Especially from the Paratge Rodors Nord sector, as it is the sector closest to the coast:

«Dunes with pine marten or pinyer pine woodlands are an extremely scarce habitat in Catalonia due to the urbanisation processes of the second half of the 20th century. Fragmented areas remain in the Llobregat Delta and on the Girona coast in two main units: the coastal zone with a dune behind Pals beach, and the extensive fossilised aeolian mantel that originates at Sant Martí d'Empúries, crosses the Montgrí, re-emerges at Pals and also traverses part of the Begur mountains. Part of this system was still mobile in the early 20th century.

The Rodors sectors represent an important opportunity to recover the population of a plant classified as “endangered”: Stachys maritima.. 

Recent literature (Blanche et al., 2010) provides very clear clues about the potential of this territory as a site for recovering this species. Specifically, this publication cites a small population at a roundabout in the Pals Mar housing estate; and, most notably, a population that appeared in a sand quarry in Regencós, where sand had been stored from some beach and which carried propagules that germinated. This species is very scarce, but ecologically adapted to the sandy medium, which implies resistance to burial and the ability to maintain viable propagules in the sand for years. Therefore, in the case of the sectors on the Pals plain, it cannot be considered an impact on a protected habitat or species; however, it does represent a great potential for the recovery of a unique species.«

Expert opinion

According to the Expert opinion, issued by environmental scientist Josep Ramon Aragó, With regard to administrative litigation appeal no. 217/2008, with a judgment from the High Court of Justice in 2011 against the partial modification of the General Plan that intended to develop the Rodors Nord area, There is an extraordinary number of species. to the sub-areas of Rodors,protected by Legislative Decree 2/2008 on indigenous wild fauna.

Article creation date: 29/10/2021.

How can we deal with it?

We need your support to protect and prevent the devastating urban development at Platja de Pals from advancing dangerously, while we demand that the Town Council halt the devastating landfilling, restore the altered physical reality, and extend the boundaries of the Natural Reserve and the Natural Park to include this former lagoon.

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