The judicial decision, issued by the Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Valencian High Court, partially grants the appeal filed by the Xúquer Viu association. This citizen and environmental platform has announced that it will study the ruling to decide whether to appeal it before the Supreme Court.
The first of the challenged administrative resolutions, which constituted the main object of the appeal and was dismissed by the TSJCV, refers to addendum number 1 of the agreement between the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) and Aguas del Júcar SA. This addendum, signed on October 27, 2023, and published in the BOE on November 13, concerned the financing and operation of the works for the New Júcar-Vinalopó Conduction.
After examining the administrative file and the report presented by the State Attorney General's Office, the magistrates reject the argument that the March 2007 agreement had expired and that a new one should have been signed. The Water Law establishes that public administrations must set up mechanisms to pass on the costs of water management services to end-users.
“"Given the high economic cost of executing the hydraulic infrastructures, more than 250 million euros in total, carried out with the State Company's own funds, and with European financing, it is illusory to consider it viable with a duration of four years (and even eight) and to comply with the legal mandate of cost recovery."
However, the magistrates reached a different conclusion regarding the legality of the other two challenged administrative resolutions. These, issued on February 12 and February 16, 2024, by the CHJ Water Commissioner, authorized the diversion of surface water from the Júcar River, at the Marquesa weir, in Cullera, through the Júcar-Vinalopó conduction and its subsequent distribution in the Vinalopó-Alacantí system.
In this case, the ruling indicates that these decisions violated what was established in article 53.3 of the regulatory provisions of the Hydrological Plan of the Júcar Hydrographic Demarcation. This article required the prior establishment of an annual exploitation plan, a plan that at the time «was conspicuously absent» and was not approved until February 2025 by the president of the CHJ.
“"The diversion of surface water from the Júcar River at the Marquesa weir (...) are administrative decisions of the Júcar Water Commissioner (by delegation of the president) that, by normative imperative, undoubtedly required the prior approval of the annual exploitation plan, something substantive and substantial."
The sentence issued by the Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TSJCV is not final and can be appealed before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court.
