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Portman Bay development suffers another delay in long-awaited revamp
The “next steps” in the plan to rejuvenate the La Unión bay area should be revealed in the next couple of weeks
It might be a new year, but it’s the same old problem for the residents of La Unión, who have been disappointed time and again as the promised regeneration project at Portmán Bay fails to materialise. The latest blow comes courtesy of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which has revealed that works won’t get underway until the end of July, at the very earliest.
But this date is only an extension for the preparation of the basic recovery project, which was originally signed back in July 2022 for just over 258,000 euros. To make matters worse, the Ministry says that this deadline could be pushed out again “depending on the duration of a possible environmental procedure.”
Open-cast mining operations in the bay between 1957 and 1987 left behind millions of tonnes of sterile waste, creating a significant environmental hazard. Despite promises to regenerate the area and attract visitors to the natural enclave, progress has been slow. The project has faced numerous challenges, including technical and environmental issues, as well as legal disputes, since it was first proposed in 2019.
At the moment, the most popular solution for Portmán is to essentially seal up the bay by means of a regenerated beach “by adding material to the existing coastal strip”, but this is by no means set in stone. In any case, a special commission consisting of Town Hall representatives, reps from the Department of Public Works and various resident and social groups will meet in La Unión at the end of this month or early February to discuss the “next steps”.
Unfortunately, opinions remain divided about how to proceed. Mayor Joaquín Zapata insists that the old mining waste must be removed rather than sealed in, a solution which he says is based on budgetary considerations instead of environmental ones.
Image: Archive
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