The head of the Territory and Sustainability Department visits the works that Ercros carries out to clean up the land of the factory of Flix

Flix, December 28, 2016 - This morning the Minister of Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, the mayor of Flix, Marc Mur, and other representatives of the Catalan administration and the City Council, visited the Ercros factory in Flix to know first –hand the characterization and sanitation that the company is carrying out and the actions that are planned to launch in 2017.

These works, which Ercros began more than 15 years ago in anticipation of the legislative demands of that moment, have led to the installation of more than 300 research wells that have allowed to determine the impact that historical industrial activity has had on the soil, subsoil and groundwater of the factory and define the specific treatments for its sanitation.

The works have been led by Ferrovial and Suez, two companies specializing in soil remediation, and supervised by the competent authorities: the Catalan Waste Agency (ARC), the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro (CHE).

Ercros guarantees compliance with its environmental commitments associated with the land owned. On the other hand, it works with the objective of providing an adequate space for the implementation of new industrial activities, within the framework of the reindustrialization project that is being implemented together with the Generalitat de Catalunya and Flix City Council.

Between 2004 and 2016, Ercros has implemented remediation measures, including:

• The collection and purification of groundwater continuously. This action has led to the installation of four strategically located hydraulic barriers and the construction of a water treatment plant;

• The continuous extraction of insoluble residues present in the subsoil and its subsequent heat treatment and

• The isolation of the soil affected by controlled sealing techniques.

In addition to these measures, the company has completed an environmental sanitation plan, which will run from 2017 and includes the following actions:

• The installation of new research points, in order to expand the characterization study;

• Acceleration of the recovery of affected soils by, inter alia, the extraction of vapours;

• The demolition of plants and industrial facilities in disuse and

• Maintenance of the control and supervision program for the monitoring of the sanitation actions progress.

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