Process begins to remove heavy machinery and abandoned vehicles from former Costa del Sol quarry

Work has begun to restore an old quarry in Nerja on the eastern Costa del Sol where heavy machinery that has been in the area for over two decades is being removed.

The Barranco de Los Colmenarejos quarry is one of the few remaining periglacial water sources in the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara, and Alhama Natural Park. Located just one kilometre from the coastal village of Maro, its upper reaches contain a huge, abandoned limestone quarry. For more than two decades, some twenty industrial vehicles and large pieces of heavy machinery have remained there, making it a frequent target for thieves and vandals.

The quarry was sealed off by Nerja town hall on 20 July 2000. For over a decade, the former owner, the construction materials company Orlando S.L., tried to obtain court permission to reopen its mining operations, arguing that the contract had not expired and that only three of the ten hectares had been exploited. This was similar to the situation with another quarry located in Canillas de Albaida, which remains active despite also being situated within the boundaries of the natural park shared by Malaga and Granada provinces.

However, the courts upheld Nerja town hall's decision in successive rulings. In 2013 Orlando Rodríguez, a business owner from Vélez-Málaga, began trying to obtain the necessary permits from the local and regional authorities to remove all the heavy machinery remaining on site. After twelve years of bureaucratic procedures, this step has finally been taken and restoration work can now begin on the old quarry.

Nerja's environment councillor, Javier Rodríguez, explained that after receiving the necessary permits, Materiales de Construcción Orlando S.L. has begun the preliminary work that will enable the restoration of the old quarry, starting with the improvement of the access road to the quarry. Once this is completed, abandoned machinery will be removed, debris will be cleared, and work will be carried out for the environmental restoration of the site.

The situation of this former aggregate quarry conceals a conflict that began more than two decades ago, when the Andalusian regional government was processing the declaration of the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara, and Alhama mountain range as a natural park, which took place in November 1999. The town hall said that the quarry's operating license had expired, along with that of the Río de la Miel quarry, which was subsequently used as an illegal dumping ground for rubble and pruning waste for 18 years.

The Río de la Miel quarry saw the mayor, José Alberto Armijo, the councillor for housing, Nieves Atencia and six local construction company owners taken to court in late 2022 and early 2023 over the illegal dumping. All were acquitted, despite the Public Prosecutor's office requesting a two-year prison sentence and an 18-month disqualification from holding public office and appealing the ruling regarding the mayor. In February the court acquitted Armijo for the second time, a ruling that was not appealed again by the Public Prosecutor's office.