Juan Vicente Herrera quiere forzar a la Unión Europea a que reconsidere la legalidad de las explotaciones en el Valle de Laciana con la excusa de que la paralización de estas explotaciones está destruyendo la economía de valles como el de Laciana y el del Sil, eliminando hasta tal exageración casi 1100 puestos de trabajo.

En respuesta a esos argumentos, SOS Laciana consideramos que desde el inicio de estas explotaciones tan destructivas hace 20 años los puestos de trabajo en el valle de Laciana han ido reduciéndose, hasta la perdida de casi un 50% de su población en los últimos 10 años.

Además, este tipo de explotaciones mineras, muy destructivas para el medio ambiente, crean grandes daños irreparables no compatibles con otras economías posibles en el valle. Su supuesta restauración no deja posibilidad a su futuro uso para economías como la ganadería ya que parte de los residuos contaminantes que se utilizan durante esas explotaciones siguen en las aguas de los ríos y los acuíferos situados en el interior de estas montañas explotadas jamás podrán volver a ser restaurados.

Cabe recordar también que el Valle de Laciana está catalogado bajo diversos regímenes de especial protección ambiental [Directiva Habitats, Directiva BIRDS, Zona ZEPA y Zona LIC) donde el cielo abierto es totalmente incompatible.

El único argumento real que parece mover al presidente de la Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera, es la continuidad de un modelo de desarrollo atado por grandes empresarios como Victorino Alonso. Su estrecha relación con altos poderes políticos parece ir dando fruto en las decisiones de la política autonómica, olvidando sus diversos fraudes fiscales y procesos abiertos por daños medioambientales y sociales que dejarán marcada la comarca de por vida.

Desde SOS Laciana queremos que los comisarios de la Unión Europea tengan en cuenta las realidades locales del valle, queremos que la situación generada por estas explotaciones no sigan dejando daños irreparables en nuestra vidas y que los argumentos de la institución autonómica que supuestamente nos representa sean analizados con todas sus repercusiones.

Desde SOS Laciana proponemos la siguiente carta para su envío a los diversos comisarios de Medio Ambiente, Agricultura y medio Rural, Presupuestos, Competencia, Economía y Finanzas, Energía, Industria y Políticas Regionales de la Unión Europea:

Dear Comissioner

I am writing to you with regards to the upcoming visit from the president of Castilla y León (Spain), Mr Juan Vicente Herrera Campo, to the Commission in Brussels on thursday the 26th of April. His objective is to request the European Commission an extension to european aid to coal extraction, as well as to try to avoid a possible fine derived from last November’s European Court of Justice’s ruling ( Case C?404/09 ) against the Kingdom of Spain for having allowed multiple illegalities occur in open-cast coal mines in the Laciana Valley ( León) and ultimately to plead for the continuation of such crimes in this protected area.

For more than 20 years we have been suffering the consequences of the illegal extraction of coal through open cast mining in Laciana. It harms our health, our quality of life. It has meant the disappearance of our environment and of our way of life.

Contrary to the reports that the mining lobby sends to Europe, open cast mining does not provide anywhere near as many jobs as traditional mining used to and instead, as it is allowed to grow, so grow its environmental impact and the pollution it produces.

Open cast mining is not a global economic alternative to the valley. Even when inside a total population of 10,000 only 127 people work in open-cast mines, some local politicians and coal mining business interests state that open cast mines are essential to the valley’s future, that open-cast mining needs public grants and subsidies to survive.

We ask for consistency from the same european institutions that due to the area’s rich natural diversity, so brilliantly awarded the Valle de Laciana with several special environmental protection regimes ( Habitats Directive and BIRDS Directive: Specially Protected Bird Area, Site of Community Importance ). As many scientific reports and studies demonstrate 1, mountain top removal through open cast mining is completely incompatible with environmental protection.

As the Commission and the European Court have acknowledged, emblematic species such as the Brown Bear ( Ursus arctos pyrenaicus ) and the Cantabrian Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus ) dwell and reproduce inside these ecosystems, their survival threaded by open cast mining activities. To allow any further exploitation of coal through open cast mining would result in a social and media scandal which would seriously undermine the credibility of EU policies of environmental protection.

In Laciana, we are perfectly aware of the close relationship held amongst some Junta de Castilla y León politicians, like Vicente Herrera himself, and business moguls like Victorino Alonso, president of Coto Minero Cantábrico and Uminsa, the companies that have been illegally operating mountain top removal mines in Laciana. Alonso has been convicted and sentenced by the spanish justice system for tax avoidance and currently faces several legal cases for environmental crimes and corruption in his business activities. Ironically he also holds the presidency of Carbunión, Spain’s coal business association. We also know that they will falsely try to convince the Commission that not allowing more mountain top removal operations will mean socio-economic ruin for the valley. What they really pretend is to keep benefitting from continuing european public aid.

Open-cast coal mining, is part of an energy model based on short-term private profits arrived only through long term public subsidies. An anachronistic and highly polluting model which is incompatible with european climate policy, a model that must be abandoned in favour of renewable energy sources. In fact, these, just like coal, are domestic sources of energy in Spain and should be encouraged here and throughout europe if we are to meet our global greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments.

We sincerely hope that this letter will help you to reflect on the issues surrounding Mr Herrera’s visit, and we trust that these open cast mines will continue being as illegal and illegitimate in the future as they have been up till now. We also trust that your good judgement will bring us the justice we haven’t found in our own land.

1 De Luis, E., Purroy, F., Ansola, G., Falagán, J., Arroyo, P., & Álvarez, J. M. (2008). Informe ambiental sobre el proyecto de explotación de carbon a cielo abierto en los montes de Orallo (Villablino, León) “El Feixolín”, promovido por la empresa Minero Siderúrgica de Ponferrada. Instituto de Medio Ambiente, Recursos Naturales y Biodiversidad. León: Universidad de León. Palmer, M. A., Bernhardt, E. S., Schlesinger, W. H., Eshleman, K. N., Foufoula- Georgiou, E., Hendryx, M. S., Lemly, A. D., et al. (2010). Mountaintop mining consequences. Science, 327(5962), 148-9. Redondo, J. M. (1988). Las explotaciones a cielo abierto en la provincia de León. Transformación del medio y explotación de recursos no renovables. León: Universidad de León.

[2] CJEU (2011, 24 November). Judgment of the Court. European Commission v Kingdom of Spain. Case C-404/09. European Court Reports 2011 Page 00000. Retrieved from http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62009CJ0404:EN:NOT