New Costa del Sol wastewater treatment plant's future to be decided by Spain's Supreme Court

The legal battle over the Edar Norte wastewater treatment plant has reached a new stage in the hands of Spain's Supreme Court, which will decide its future after local residents challenged the environmental sustainability of the project.

The regional government's idea has been to build the plant on a plot between Campanillas and Alhaurín de la Torre. It would cost the regional government 104 million euros.

It is one of the largest hydraulic work in Andalucía, key to treating wastewater from new developments in Malaga, Torremolinos, Cártama, Alhaurín de la Torre and El Grande. Municipal company Emasa is to manage it.

Residents of the Vega de Mestanza and Lomas de Cantarrana areas, however, lodged a complaint, stating that the project concerns a sensitive and flood-prone area.

The Andalusian High Court (TSJA) ruled in favour of the residents and annulled the preliminary project approval, questioning the environmental assessment.

The regional government suspended the work - not out of legal obligation, but simply as a matter of common sense, given the volume of the investment.

Now the Supreme Court has to decide whether the regional government filed an appeal within the legal deadline. The next step would be to decide whether to admit the appeal, but the lawyer representing the residents says that around 90 per cent of such appeals are rejected.

If the Supreme Court accepts the appeal, it will have to analyse it and either uphold or overturn the TSJA ruling.

According to the regional government, the appeal aims to defend the general interests of the environment. Among other things, failure to treat the water of Alhaurín El Grande means a considerable fine from the EU every six months.

The Edar Norte has been in the pipeline since 2007.

The residents are afraid that the project will damage their property and citrus farms. Their greatest concern, however, is that the plot is located over flood-prone grounds.

Their report accuses the regional government of lacking environmental competence to approve the wastewater treatment plant. The TSJA accepted their complaint as sound.

The ruling also pointed out the environmental characteristics of the Vega area: "This study should have been taken to the extreme, taking into account that the Vega de Mestanza has been officially declared part of the world biological corridor (...) due to its high ecological value."

The companies awarded the project reworked it and reduced the physical footprint of the treatment plant by 30 per cent and the number of citrus trees to be impacted by more than 4,000.