The people who have been at the helm of
the Bailín landfill site project in Sabiñánigo
(Huesca) are: Julián Imaz, manager of the
joint venture and of the Aragón branch office;
Araceli Mir, head of research; Javier Corra-
les, project manager; José Mª Celaya, head
of the Soil Decontamination Department, all
of them great professionals who have de-
monstrated their expertise and great ability
to respond quickly.
The operation involving the dismantling of
the Bailín (Sabiñánigo) landfill site, the most
contaminated spot in Aragón where more
than 200,000 cubic metres of soil contai-
ning lindane was buried, was successfully
completed after a short but intense period of
work. Hazardous waste was stored in a new
safety cell which was permanently sealed to
prevent further filtration in the subsoil.
Pyrenees in Aragón
Sabiñánigo, a small city in the Pyrenees in
Aragón, became an industrial site in the first
third of the 20th-century thanks to the pre-
sence of water which made it possible to ge-
nerate hydroelectric power. From the start,
it was a major player in the basic chemical
industry. This success story takes place in
the outlying areas of Sabiñánigo.
In 1975, the chemical plant installed in Bai-
lín started to produce lindane. This activity
continued until 1994 when the factory was
closed. Part of the waste from this output
was deposited in the Bailín landfill site in the
outskirts of the city without implementing the
appropriate insulation measures. It is estima-
ted that about 30,000,000 tons of lindane
and other pesticides in solid state were de-
posited at the site.
The landfill site had been built without perfor-
ming the work for its adequate conditioning,
insulation, and elimination as required by cu-
rrent regulations for the production of these
types of products and lacked the proper en-
vironmental protection systems. As a result,
FCC’s experience in soil decontamination
FCC began its soil decontamination acti-
vities practically coinciding with its indus-
trial waste treatment business.
The activity includes all the possible work
performed in this field, from the characte-
rization of soil and underground water to
the design and execution of remediation
measures on-site or externally.
The company has its own resources and
multidisciplinary teams which are specia-
lists in this sector.
The complexity of the work requires the
strong involvement of the team in order
to achieve the objectives within the requi-
red timeframe and at the estimated cost.
Even though the recurrent activity in this
sector has dropped 70% since 2008,
FCC remains the leading company and
is working on two of the most important
projects put out to tender, one of the de-
contamination of the Flix reservoir and
another one the work being carried out
at the former HCH landfill site in Bailín
(Sabiñánigo).
The work carried out in Bailín is an exam-
ple of the excellent coordination of the
entire team that was involved in the exe-
cution since, according to AA1 require-
ments, it was necessary to complete the
project in five months to take advantage
of favourable weather conditions and mi-
nimise the possible impact on the envi-
ronment.
it became a source of contamination for the
environment, fauna and flora.
The environmental monitoring program of
the Government of Aragón detected the pre-
sence of liquid lindane in the aquifer under
the former waste deposit which was near
the voluminous Gállego River. After some
time, there were several incidents of conta-
minated leakage and the situation became
increasingly more dangerous.
After confirming the seriousness of this situa-
tion, it was agreed that the only alternative to
control this contamination was to dismantle
the principal source, the former landfill site,
and transfer the waste to a new safety cell.
In order to do this, it was necessary to exe-
cute a project for addressing the problems
at the site, considered one of the most ambi-
tious waste management operations under-
taken in Spain.
An accomplished team
The project, managed by FCC Ámbito, was
executed in three phases with more than 50
people working in different shifts and with all
the necessary safety measures required for
this type of work.
Maria Jesús Kaifer, technical manager at
FCC Ámbito.
t h e p l a c e
