The Supreme Administrative Court (STA) maintained the rejection of the precautionary measure brought by the Municipality of Barcelos to halt the construction of a very high voltage line in the municipality, according to a judgment to which Lusa had access today.
In the judgment, dated July 2, STA decides not to admit the appeal, considering that the municipality was not “persuasive” in the arguments it used to defend that the advance of the line could lead to losses that are difficult to repair.
For STA, the losses allegedly arising from the construction of the line, linked to the removal of land, the destruction of vegetation and soil and the production of noise and nuisance, “would always be easily compensated”.
As for the damages resulting from the operation of the line, STA stresses that the municipality itself did not materialize them, saying that they are not translatable into “concrete facts”, but only in “fears” that it considers “founded”.
“Now, it is difficult to argue better in favor of the judgment that is being appealed”, adds STA.
Filed in September 2019, at the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Braga (TAFB), the precautionary measure asks for the embargo of the work and the abstention from any conduct or material operation that relates to the construction of the line, as well as the suspension of the effectiveness of the declaration of environmental impact and suspension of the effectiveness of the order that granted the construction license.
The TAFB dismissed the precautionary measure, but the Chamber filed an appeal with the TCAN, which also did not prove it.
Now, it was the STA’s turn not to accept the new appeal.
The Chamber alleges that the line will penalize nine parishes in the municipality, with particular emphasis on Perelhal, Vila Seca and Macieira de Rates, where it will pass through “important population areas”.
The Chamber also says that it cannot be asked to realize the potential risks arising from the installation of the line, considering that studies and regulations are lacking.
He adds that, at this moment, the great danger of installing the line is to put “an entire population under effects that are unaware of exposure to electric and magnetic fields derived from very high voltage lines, as there are no studies and standards on the levels of human exposure maximum allowed to electromagnetic fields ”.
In May, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action said that the line is already under construction and that the suspension of the works “will not be an option of the Government”, given “its importance for the National Electric System”.
In response to a question posed by three deputies from the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), the ministry adds that the line will have a total of 107 posts, with work already started in about 40%, including in the municipality of Barcelos.
“This particular line is part of the Project of Common Interest and is related to the integration of high production of renewable energy sources, namely in the Cávado basin. It is also related to the new interconnection between Portugal (Minho) and Spain (Galicia), increasing the integration between the two countries in the Iberian electricity market (MIBEL) and this with the European market, thus promoting competition ”, he adds.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, “Portugal has legislation that guarantees the total safety of people and goods under and in the immediate vicinity of the very high tension lines,“ according to the most recent recommendations from international health organizations ”.
The ministry also says that alternative routes were studied, “but that had negative impacts on people higher than the impacts that the line under construction will have”.
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