Rodrigo Fresco assures that “everyone was warned” because he contacted the National and Regional Police and the Ribeira City Council that day.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 11 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
On the afternoon of December 13, after finishing his workday, Rodrigo Fresco received a call from a client and acquaintance who had been on Balieiros beach, in Ribeira (A Coruña), and who had observed some bags with a substance white in the sand and rocks that he initially thought was cocaine.
When he went there, this resident of Corrubedo, owner of a hotel establishment, identified that they were small plastic balls that “smelled very bad, like gasoline,” and he first observed “three or four bags,” which later, that day, They turned out to be about 40.
At that moment, around 4:30 p.m., was when he made the first call to the 112 Galicia headquarters. According to Fresco told Europa Press, the emergency center – dependent on the regional administration – contacted Maritime Rescue – the State Administration -, but that it “could not act because the sea was very rough.”
In addition, he called the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard, but they referred him to the National Police, which in turn redirected him to the Autonomous Police, who said “that everything was prepared to go pick them up the next day.” “.
“I sent the location, I sent photos, I told them what it smelled like…” adds Fresco, who also contacted Greenpeace and the Ribeira City Council, which assured that the next day it would send the municipal emergency groups.
That first day, the 13th, this man began to take the bags towards the surf zone that was in the first place he observed, but “on the other end of the beach there were more.” “That was chaos, in total on the first day there were about 40 bags,” he describes.
The next morning he returned to Balieiros, before the authorities arrived there, and took up this work again. In total, he removed 58 bags of pellets from the beach.
Rodrigo Fresco is surprised by the reactions of the regional and state administrations, because “they knew about it since December 13”, five days after the ‘Tocomao’ lost six containers off the Portuguese coast.
However, it was not until the 20th when Salvamento Marítimo notified Gardacostas of this incident with the cargo ship by telephone and the Xunta activated the plan against marine pollution (Camgal) after receiving an email on January 3 from the Central government.
Fresco criticizes the management by both administrations, which “were warned beforehand, and warns that “there are no political colors here.” “We are all citizens who pay for it,” concludes this resident of Ribeira.
