Environment agency tells MPs it has no oversight role at Ferreira do Alentejo olive-pomace plant

At a parliamentary environment committee hearing, the vice-president of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) said the agency issues none of the licences held by the olive-pomace plant in Fortes, Ferreira do Alentejo, and so is not responsible for monitoring it, except on water resources. Questions on environmental impact assessment and air emissions were passed to the Alentejo regional commission, the CCDR. The agency described a February lagoon overflow as exceptional after the storms, saying contaminated soil was removed and sampled stream water broadly met legal limits. In May an inspectorate found a degraded lagoon liner leaking effluent into the soil, and the company has since repaired it.