The Duchess of Montoro has been summoned to testify as being investigated for a crime against the environment for the use of eight clandestine wells on a 200-hectare farm next to the Doñana National Park. The responsible company is Agrarian Eurotechnique, whose presidency rotates from time to time among all the brothers. During the alleged violation, Eugenia Martínez de Irujo appears as responsible, but she has already defended herself: “That property is not my property and I have no link or responsibility with it.” Now, it is the House of Alba that supports the youngest, stating that its management falls solely on her nephew, Luis Martínez de Irujo.
In a statement sent this Wednesday, the House of Alba separates Eugenia from the management of the company (“has never participated in the management of the farm”) and holds Luis Martínez de Irujo responsible for it: “He is the member of the council responsible for the management of the Aljóbar estate.”
Likewise, they deny the accusations of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office: “At no time has it exceeded the maximum volume approved by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG).” They add: “The company has not at any time damaged the public domain, since the Aljóbar farm is outside the Doñana aquifer”. And they conclude: “The property has always facilitated the authorities’ access to the property to supervise the irrigation systems and proceeded to disable the wells as soon as it received the court order.”
Eurotécnica Agraria also defends that it has “an authorization for irrigation through wells of 606,000 cubic meters of water per year and storage of the extracted water in a private pond of 304,000 cubic meters of water per year, with authorization to irrigate 200 hectares” , while currently “122 hectares of orange trees are irrigated with a drip irrigation system authorized by the CHG thanks to a ruling, an area smaller than that authorized in the registration of the private waters of the farm.”
He also assures that in July “a proposal was presented to the CHG for a reduction in the cultivated area of the farm, transformation of the plantation to a mixed crop and adaptation of the irrigation provisions to the needs of the new crops in accordance with the Hydrological Plan of the Guadalquivir”. And it concludes: “The Aljóbar farm has technological systems to control the amount of water used for irrigation and also has a volumetric counter at the outlet of the pond in the irrigation head that confirms the volume of water extracted, which at no time has it exceeded the maximum volume approved by the CHG”.
A crime against the Environment
The complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office states that the eight irregular wells at the Aljóbar Estate in Seville, in Aznalcázar (Seville), have damaged a body of groundwater very close to the reserve for at least a decade, which is why the Seprona de The Civil Guard came this summer to stop the extractions. The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the Albas committed a crime of disobedience by preventing Seprona agents and technicians from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation from entering the farm when they came to close the wells on June 12.
Alfonso Martínez de Irujo, who manages the farm with his son Luis, admits that he did not register the wells and that there are “more than necessary.” “It is not illegal, although I should have prioritized this issue”has acknowledged the Duke of Híjar, who has presented a document in court so that instead of his sister, his son, manager of the estate in recent years, should declare that he was under investigation.