Four civic and cultural organizations, and hundreds of individuals, have come out in vociferous opposition to the reopening of the quarry in Anopoli, which was reported in last month’s edition of The Khronicles.

Committee Fight, the Gournes Association Development and Environment, Η Αγία Αναστασία (the Cultural Association of the New Village) and the Co-operative of the New Village have joined forces and, through their attorney Yiorgos Kokosalis, filed extrajudicial papers to “block any negligent moves by the committee responsible for defining quarry zones,” whose president is the Iraklion Governor Schinaraki.

The quarry committee, which convened at the governor’s offices in April, is of an advisory character only, it was reported, and is expected to reconvene at the end of this month.

“It would be good though to have the decision of the Gouves Town Council as well, as the Gouves council has not yet taken a position although it is the most relevant demos in this conflict,” said Vasiliki Alexaki-Hronaki, president of Gournes Association Development and Environment.

Among other things, the extrajudicial papers refer to the fact that “the quarry is active outside a quarry zone, and it has been ordered by law to replenish and restore its grounds,” which, it is reported, they haven’t done.”

In addition, the papers state: “The Company, Gournes Quarries Ltd., has applied to define the area of its operations as a quarry zone in spite of the fact that a similar petition was denied in 2004 by the Iraklion Prefecture.”

Also, “a proposal for a new quarry zone is forbidden by law unless it has been proven that within the province there are needs which cannot be covered by the already existing quarry zones.”

The papers list all the quarry zones in the Iraklion province, and conclude that “according to expert studies, there are enough reserves of inert materials to cover the province’s needs for the next 80 years.”  

And so, “asking for a new quarry zone and defining it as such is not only extremely cruel environmentally and with grave consequences for the Gouves and Episkopi townships, but also highly illegal.”

“We met with Gouves Mayor Nikolakaki in reference to the quarry issue,” said Dimitris Souliotakis, from Committee Fight, and he said “no one is for the quarries.”  And he added “what really worries me is the restoration and replenishing of its area.” The mayor also promised a council meeting with the quarry as its main issue in the very near future.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents in the area expressed their anger and continue to agonize daily about the health dangers for them and their families, and about the effects on the environment.

“When my son was diagnosed with a tumor in his head, one of the first questions the doctors asked was, ‘do you live near a quarry’?” said Mrs. Elenora Halkiadaki of Pano Gouves. “There must be something to the health question if that’s their procedure. And with this southern wind we’ve been having, can you imagine the dangerous particles in the air when the quarry is in operation?” She said she is currently waiting for detailed reports from health authorities concerning the dangers of the quarry.

“We have elected officials who are supposed to be representing us, and the first we heard of this situation is through the newspaper,” said one angry Anopoli resident. “What are they trying to pull here? They’re supposed to be protecting us.”

Another resident said: “The operation of the quarry is harmful, not only to the environment like the destruction of the Aghia Irini gorge, but to public health as well, since we daily breathe in dangerous dust particles.”

In related news concerning this controversial issue, Pasok MP Manolis Stratakis in his letter to the Interior and the Environment, Building and Public Works ministers talked about “a necessary and imposed redefining of the quarry zones in  the Iraklion Province in order for the residents and the ecosystem to be protected.”

He said most quarries in Crete either violate systematically the conditions for operations or illegally extend the operations into the restoration period of the area’s environment without finally restoring it at all.

“Usually, not even the basic environmental terms are kept, like tree planting with the right kind of trees or sprinkling the area with water during wind storms, while many quarries extend way over the legally leased number of stremmata.”

Mr. Stratakis asked if the ministers “intend to proceed with the redefining of the quarry zones in our province”, but also “if they intend to give orders for systematic checking controls so that the imposed environmental conditions and the quarries’ legal boundaries are kept in check.”