Chemical Park of Huelva

It was not until 1964 when the Franco Government - during the mayoralty in the capital of Federico Molina - approved by decree of January 30, 1964 the construction of an Industrial Promotion Pole in these lands,[3] which would change the geography, the population and the politics of the area in many aspects.

Years later, the Unión Explosivos Río Tinto (ERT) group, the successor of the former CEMRT, came to exercise an important predominance in the Chemical Pole.

Later, after the industrial reconversion of the years 1980–1990, companies such as CLH, Atlantic Copper, Cepsa, Ence, FMC Foret or Repsol were installed.

[7] Faced with the ecological degradation of the water and the serious environmental problem this caused, in 1987 the authorities drew up a Discharge Correction Plan to reverse this situation.

These are the phosphogypsum ponds, which are located some 700 meters from the Pérez Cubillas neighborhood in Huelva and two kilometers from the center of the capital, next to which a thousand homes and a commercial park have been built.

This activity stopped in 2010 and since that date there is no discharge in these ponds, and the company Fertiberia is waiting for the administrative permits to start the works of the restoration project designed following the indications of the National Court and the competent Ministries at the time, which already ruled -in a final judgment- that the phosphogypsum would not be moved to another place.

Greenpeace denounced that the cancer rate in Huelva is the highest in Spain[16][17] and that the phosphogypsum ponds emit radiation 27 times higher than what is allowed.

Regarding radioactivity, the Nuclear Safety Council, in all its studies and reports (including those destined to Congress and the Senate), indicates that there is no radiological risk in Huelva or in the phosphogypsum ponds.