​The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge determines the status of substantive body of the Port Authority of Valencia in the expansion of Valencia port

• Puertos del Estado reacts to the consultation made by the Port Authority of Valencia.
• The Port Authority of Valencia, as the substantive body of the project, is in charge of determining the need for a new environmental assessment.
  
   
  
   

09-04-2021 (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda) The public agency Puertos del Estado has sent the Port Authority of Valencia a technical note and a legal report in response to the consultation made in connection to the environmental processing of the preliminary project for developing the new container terminal of the port of Valencia.

The conclusions of the legal report state that, since the "Valencia Port Expansion" project has a favorable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the works began to be executed within one year of its publication, the EIS is considered to be valid, since it does not fall under any of the expiration assumptions of the legislation on environmental assessment, including the current Law 21/2013, of December 9, on environmental assessment.

On the other hand, the technical note concludes that the modifications proposed in the preliminary draft of the works to be implemented for the development of the container terminal in the North extension of the port of Valencia do not appear to fall under any of the assumptions of Article 7.2.c of Law 21/2013 on environmental assessment, which determine when modifications to projects that have an EIS in force must undergo a new environmental assessment.

However, it should be noted that the Port Authority of Valencia, as the substantive body of the project, in accordance with the resolution of 31 March 2021 of the General Directorate for Environmental Quality and Assessment of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, will be responsible for determining whether or not to submit for environmental assessment the measures elaborated in the submitted Preliminary Draft, so that the technical note and legal report submitted by Puertos del Estado are merely an informative response to a consultation made by the Port Authority itself.

On the other hand, the technical note recommends that, in the event that the Port Authority of Valencia decides to consider the measures constituting the final version of the Preliminary Draft exempt from simplified environmental assessment, it should be verified prior to the approval of the corresponding projects, that the intensification of the dredging activity in the inner dock of the port of Valencia does not lead to a significant increase in discharges to the coastline relating to the original project submitted to the Environmental Impact Statement; likewise, that the surplus material from the demolitions or from the planned removal of port installations already executed, and which have no specific purpose, will be reused to fill the esplanades or for other port infrastructures, in such a way that it does not lead to a significant increase in the generation of waste with respect to the original project; and finally, that the non-existence of new sites not inventoried in the more detailed archaeological studies established in the EIS as a corrective measure be confirmed.