'Surf and turf' protest in Spain against factory, mine / Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA - AFP
NYSE - LSE
| RIO | 1.75% | 63.555 | $ | |
| BTI | -0.67% | 56.215 | $ | |
| NGG | -0.06% | 71.557 | $ | |
| CMSC | -0.23% | 24.305 | $ | |
| JRI | 0.06% | 14.105 | $ | |
| GSK | -1.13% | 40.375 | $ | |
| SCS | 0.24% | 16.85 | $ | |
| BCC | -0.63% | 85.14 | $ | |
| RYCEF | 1.41% | 15.64 | $ | |
| RBGPF | -1.67% | 76 | $ | |
| AZN | -1.95% | 78.036 | $ | |
| CMSD | 0.19% | 24.446 | $ | |
| VOD | -0.51% | 11.79 | $ | |
| BP | 0.95% | 34.215 | $ | |
| BCE | -2.31% | 23.615 | $ | |
| RELX | 0.81% | 46.88 | $ |
'Surf and turf' protest in Spain against factory, mine
Thousands of people on boats and on land staged a "surf and turf" protest in northwest Spain on Saturday against a planned textile factory and the reopening of a copper mine.
Protesters in the coastal city of A Pobra do Caraminal, in Spain's Galicia region, decried what they said were the environmental risks posed by both facilities.
Organisers -- who termed the rally a "surf and turf" protest -- said they had suspicions about the plans by Portuguese company Altri to build a factory to make lyocell, a semi-synthetic textile.
They said they feared it was just cover to build a cellulose plant that would pollute the region's Ulloa River and its Arousa Estuary.
The site of the factory is in Palas de Rei, close to a section of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route used by hundreds of thousands of people every year.
The organisers -- calling themselves the Platform for the Defence of the Arousa Estuary -- said they also opposed the planned reopening of an open-cast copper mine in Touro, just east of the city of Santiago de Compostela. The mine was closed in 1986.
Manoel Santos, a regional representative for Greenpeace, said the Altri textile factory "could spell the death of the Arousa Estuary".
Galicia's regional government has declared the factory to be ecologically viable.
A spokeswoman for Greenfiber, Altri's subsidiary in charge of the project, denied any pollution risk. She told Galician public television that the factory "scrupulously respects all EU environmental rules".
J.Sayed--CdE
