THE GARRAF RUBBISH DUMP AND ITS POSSIBLE BIOSPELEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES. Prof. Dr. Josep Antoni Herrera Sancho. Institute of Penedesencs Studies (IEP)

Year 2025

Prof. Dr. Josep Antoni Herrera Sancho, Vice President of the Institute of Penedès Studies (IEP). Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC).

Between 1995 and 2005, he was the university research scientist and inventor who successfully applied, for the first time in the world, the technique of extinguishing large internal combustions in urban mega-dumps with deep injections of high-pressure cryogenic liquid nitrogen. The technique was published internationally in his doctoral thesis in 2006 at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). The technique is openly licensed to facilitate its application in underdeveloped countries and it is only mandatory to cite the author and the university each time it is used somewhere in the world.

THE GARRAF RUBBISH DUMP AND ITS POSSIBLE BIOSPELEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

Prof. Dr. Josep Antoni Herrera Sancho

Institute of Penedesencs Studies

Second edition

Original title of the first edition of 1974

(Paper published in "Communications IV Biospeleology Symposium of 1974" (pages 119 to 128) co-organized by the Catalan School of Speleology (C.C.B.E. de la F.C.M.) and the Pedraforca Speleology Group. Legal Deposit: B- 12787/74). Publication sold out.

2nd edition, translated, scientifically corrected and adapted in 2022 by its own author

Prof. Dr. Josep Antoni Herrera Sancho is a Doctor of Environmental Engineering (Polytechnic University of Catalonia: UPC), Master of Administration and Environmental Management of the Territory (Autonomous University of Barcelona: UAB), Postgraduate in Instruments of Territorial Management (Polytechnic University of Catalonia: UPC), Bachelor of Biological Sciences (University of Barcelona: UB), Botany (University of Barcelona: UB), Former Head of the Environment Service Environment (City Council of Vilanova i la Geltrú), Ex-Coordinator of the Garraf Natural Park (City Council of Vilanova i la Geltrú – Barcelona Provincial Council), Landscape Coordinator, co-founder, researcher and vice-president (Institute of Penedesencs Studies: IEP)

ABSTRACT:

The massif of Garraf (Barcelona. Catalonia. Spain) has a hydrological basin of about 233 km2 on Cretaceous and Jurassic limestone rocks up to about 1,000 m deep. The Garraf massif landfill, of urban solid waste without any prior sorting, designed in 1972, opened in 1974, and definitively closed in 2021, contains more than 30 million cubic meters of rubbish and occupies more than 87 hectares of waste from Barcelona and its metropolitan area. It is a unique and unique case in Europe of serious pollution in calcareous karst. The official analysis of 2021 confirms the severe contamination of groundwater by toxic biogases in the chasms near the landfill.

This research provides updated data and shows that Prof. Dr. Josep Antoni Herrera i Sancho already published in 1974, just after the landfill was inaugurated, in a specialized symposium held in Barcelona, a paper in which he already predicted each and every one of the consequences of environmental pollution, especially with the aim of 'avoid the environmental disaster that could already be seen coming. The second edition of it, which you now have in your hands, will allow you to know in detail everything that is essential about this urban mega-dump and its long-term environmental consequences.

Keywords:

Controlled deposit of the Vall d'en Joan, Vall d'en Joan, Garraf landfill, AMB, Barcelona Metropolitan Area, USW, Urban solid waste, urban gar-bage dump, landfill, La Falconera, Environmental engineering, Barcelona, Hydrogeology, Biogas, Biogas plant , Definitive closure, Definitive sealing, Landscape restoration, Energy use of biogas, Pollution, Natural Park of the Garraf, Karst, Groundwater, Garraf Massif, , , , , , , , , ,