Amplified complaint to the Prosecutor's Office for the management of waste contaminated by asbestos in the Microsoft works in Puerto Venecia

The neighborhood struggle against Microsoft data centers in Puerto Venecia has no truce. On September 23rd, residents of the Torrero neighborhood of Zaragoza expanded their complaint to the Prosecutor's Office against the technology company for irregularities in the management of hazardous waste in the construction of their data centers, located next to the shopping center and the Pinares. The complainants have asked the Prosecutor's Office to add the new information revealed during the past month to their file. In their written submission, they have attached two relevant pieces of information about the case. The first of these concerns how Microsoft lied to obtain the municipal licenses to clean up the historic dumps on their land. In their technical project, the multinational claimed not to have found any hazardous waste, while in the report they attached in its initial approval to PIGA, they estimated 5,200 tons of hazardous remains, including asbestos (fibrocement), asphalt, gypsum, or tires. Another piece of information that the neighbors provide to the Prosecutor's Office is that the technology company, thanks to these lies, managed to get these two licenses approved without environmental classification by the Zaragoza City Council. In July, Microsoft managed to get the Government of Aragon to accept the modification of its PIGA to remove the report it itself recognized the existence of hazardous waste from the documentation. In this way, it tries to evade responsibilities in the complaints about asbestos management. With this approval from the Aragonese executive, it seeks to prevent INAGA from evaluating the environmental impact on waste management. In the expansion, it is also proven how the neighbors are carrying out the surveillance and control work, which would now correspond to the municipal team of Natalia Chueca. In this new submission, they state that: "Currently, the materials selected from the dumps are being taken from the location for reuse without knowing if these materials are or are not contaminated." The neighbors have asked the Prosecutor's Office to include these new contributions in the file that was opened in the first complaint filed on June 23rd. Torrero against Microsoft The neighborhood struggle against Microsoft data centers began at the end of June when AraInfo revealed the transport of contaminated rubble with asbestos without covering. The neighbors visually documented how these waste trucks came from the historic dumps. These facts violated the transport measures set by Royal Decree 396/2006, which establishes the minimum safety and health provisions applicable to work with the risk of asbestos exposure. Since then, the neighborhood movement has continued to fight against Microsoft through awareness and mobilization. At the end of August, the Platform ‘Save the Pinares of Venecia’ presented more than 350 appeals to the DGA “on the new environmental impact assessment”. In mid-September, this same entity, in collaboration with the group ‘It's not drought, it's looting’, organized an informative talk about the impact of the data centers with enormous attendance, with about 200 people remaining outside the Venecia Room of Torrero due to full capacity. But the great collective support for this struggle took place on September 27th, with the mobilization called from Torrero to the Microsoft data center works in Puerto Venecia. Nearly 2,000 people demonstrated walking almost four kilometers. The most shouted slogans during this journey were: “We will stop these works”, “Microsoft and Amazon, out of Aragon”, “Our Pinares are not a landfill”, and “Against capital, the neighborhood force”. The last neighborhood protest took place at the end of September during the ‘Data Center Expansion’ day. This event, held in Ibercaja, was a business meeting dedicated to promoting these digital infrastructures. The main representatives of promoting entities, such as Microsoft and Amazon, as well as the state headquarters for data centers, attended there. At the entrance to the building, they were received by residents of ‘Save the Pinares of Venecia’ and members of ‘It's not drought, it's looting’ to express to these multinationals and speculators in person that “they are not welcome in Aragon”.