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The manager of La Sala SL, a seed company operating several farms in San Pedro del Pinatar, appeared before the courts in Cartagena on Tuesday June 2 and admitted to dumping nitrate-laden wastewater into the lagoon through the illegal use of an unauthorised desalination plant.

 

The Segura River Basin Authority had never approved the plant, yet over a period of roughly a decade the company discharged around 25,346 cubic metres of contaminated water from approximately eleven hectares of farmland. That water flowed into an unlined irrigation reservoir and from there seeped through into the Mar Menor.

 

Like a number of other defendants in related cases, the 66-year-old businessman reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office that allowed him to avoid actually serving time behind bars. He accepted a sentence of one year, three months and two days for an environmental crime, with the prison term suspended after mitigating factors including late confession and prior reparation of damages were taken into account.

 

As part of the deal agreed with prosecutor Miguel de Mata, he will also be banned from working as a farmer or managing agricultural businesses for nine months, though the court allowed him a reasonable period to make the necessary arrangements before that suspension kicks in.

 

Financially, he's been ordered to pay a fine of €905, plus €5,461 to the state and €3,056 to the Regional Government, all of which had already been deposited into the court's bank account before the hearing as a condition of finalising the agreement.

 

According to the prosecution's written statement, which drew on the expert findings of ecotoxicologist Luis Burillo, conduct of this kind caused serious damage and risk to the quality of both surface water and groundwater and, through those, to the animals, plants and natural habitats that make up the Mar Menor ecosystem.