In a question to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, to which Lusa had access and which was delivered in the Assembly of the Republic, the deputies of BE want to know “how the Government intends to act to ensure that these discharges from the Matosinhos refinery do not happen again”.

BE says that, "according to the Captaincy of Douro and Leixões", "Galp discharged effluents at Praia das Salinas", in the municipality of Matosinhos, on 23 August, from "the Petrogal refinery in Leça da Palmeira" .

"This is not a unique and isolated situation, and has already occurred several times. Already in November 2019 it was reported that Petrogal assumed a discharge occurred on that date explaining that there was a "loss in a branch of the internal network of water distribution," recalled the political party.

For BE, "the successive discharges by the refinery must deserve special attention by the Ministry of the Environment", being "urgent to ascertain the causes as well as the definition of strategies so that it will not occur again, since this type of pollution is very serious".

BE also refers to the "high hazardousness" of discharges, noting that "an uncontrolled situation" can "have extremely serious impacts on the environment and public health.

The deputies therefore ask if the Government is aware of the situation, if it confirms the origin of the discharge and to what "the anomalous situation" was due to.

BE also questions "in what quantities these discharges and the presence of hydrocarbons were verified" and "how the environment affected by these products will be restored".