“(…) We will request an external team, independent and experienced in this type of evaluation methodologies, to provide us with a preliminary report on the environmental impacts resulting from the accident at the AdCL lift station in the short term,” stated Alexandre Tavares, the chairman of the board of directors.
The company official spoke to journalists in Marinha Grande, district of Leiria, following the first meeting of the monitoring committee to assess the malfunction, impacts, and investment needs, attended by various entities.
According to Alexandre Tavares, this preliminary study, expected to occur within 30 days, will be followed by “a series of actions, monitoring, and evaluation of the various parts, leading to a final impact assessment report.”
A week ago, at 10:00 a.m. on the 12th, a malfunction was recorded at the Monte Real lift station (Leiria), which necessitated the discharge of thousands of cubic meters of untreated effluents into the Lis River and irrigation ditches.
The following day, AdCL announced that the station, responsible for elevating effluent to the Coimbrão wastewater treatment plant (Leiria), was “temporarily inoperational due to a pump failure in the lifting system.”
Due to the station’s inoperability, “the emergency discharge system of the station, as well as of the upstream lift station (Serra de Porto do Urso), was activated,” the company explained, stating that “these discharges occur, respectively, in the Lis River and an adjacent irrigation ditch.”
This situation led to a ban on swimming, now lifted, at Praia da Vieira, in Marinha Grande, where the Lis River flows into the sea, and the Municipality of Leiria advised against activities in the stretch of the Lis River downstream from Monte Real, such as irrigation intake, swimming, and fishing.
The malfunction was resolved in the early hours of the 14th.
On that day, the Secretary of State for the Environment, João Manuel Esteves, announced the creation of the committee, and AdCL assured it would take responsibility.
Alexandre Tavares explained that today’s meeting presented the emergency actions already carried out, emphasizing that “it is possible to verify that the river’s condition is substantially better.”
Furthermore, he guaranteed that the company “is committed to all agents on the ground,” referring to the parish councils and the municipalities of Marinha Grande and Leiria, stressing they are “important focal points” for “assessing the damage” resulting from the malfunction to streamline the process.
Alexandre Tavares added that the company is highly committed to reinforcing redundancy and creating resilience in the system, so that “such accidents do not occur again.”
Regarding the possibility that the risk at the Monte Real lift station was underestimated, Alexandre Tavares countered that the company acted according to best practices.
“We were performing preventive maintenance on one of the pumps as we should have been; what was unexpected was having two pumps inoperational at the same time,” added the chairman of Águas do Centro Litoral.
The meeting, besides AdCL, included representatives from the government, the Portuguese Environment Agency, the municipalities of Marinha Grande and Leiria, the Intermunicipal Community of the Leiria Region, the Association of Beneficiaries and Irrigators of the Lis Valley, and the company Águas do Centro Litoral.
