The Taula de la Qualitat de l'Aire en el Camp de Tarragona continues without being convened since July 22, 2022, in a halt that the Departament de Territori, Habitatge i Transició Ecològica attributes to the lack of staff to install and operate the new measurement equipment planned for the area.
The councilor Sílvia Paneque has placed the origin of this inactivity in the absence of professionals to launch the devices that must expand control over specific pollutants demanded from the territory. The body was constituted in 2015 with the objective of exchanging information on air quality, evaluating the effects of chemical industry emissions on health, and reinforcing transparency.
"We do not yet have the adequate staff to install and manage the specific pollutant measurement equipment requested by the territory" - Sílvia Paneque, Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition
A pending deployment in several municipalities of the chemical area
The new monitoring system must allow to quantify in real time pollutants such as benzene, 1,3 butadiene and ethylene oxide, three compounds especially sensitive in the environment of the Tarragona petrochemical hub. The forecast involves extending the control network at different points in Tarragona and its metropolitan area.
The plan contemplates the installation of four gas chromatographs to detect benzene in Sant Salvador, la Laboral, Bonavista and the IES Vila seca. To that are added six pieces of equipment destined to measure ethylene oxide and 1,3 butadiene in Constantí, Perafort in the nucleus of Puigdelfí, Bonavista, la Laboral, Sant Salvador and the IES Vila seca.
It is also planned to use five portable stations for combined measurements of benzene and 1,3 butadiene in La Canonja, El Morell, La Pobla de Mafumet, La Pineda and Vilallonga del Camp. This is a network designed to expand coverage in some of the municipalities closest to industrial activity.
More than one million euros for the main actions
The global budget for the three main actions amounts to 1,076,083.19 euros. To that figure are added 904,034.56 euros for complementary items, among them the purchase of casings, an ammonia measurement equipment and about thirty devices to analyze suspended particles.
"The date for the convocation of a new Taula will be able to be set once all elements in operation and the people hired for the installation and management of the equipment are available" - Sílvia Paneque, Councillor of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition
For now, the reactivation of the Taula remains subject to the technical deployment being operational and the hiring of the necessary personnel being completed. Until then, one of the main public monitoring spaces on air quality in the Camp de Tarragona continues without formal activity.