Augas de Galicia publishes the Feder co-financing for the Vilagarcía wastewater treatment plant

Augas de Galicia published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette of Galicia (Diario Oficial de Galicia) the 60% co-financing of the eligible expenditure by the Feder in the project and execution contract for the expansion of the Vilagarcía de Arousa WWTP. The resolution, signed on September 10, 2026, publicizes the action already awarded and formalized, with a base tender budget of 23,137,424.14 euros (27,996,283.21 euros including VAT). The announcement occupies pages 49961 to 49968 of DOG no. 180, in section VI.a.

The publication responds to the information and publicity obligation for actions co-financed with European funds, set out in Annex IX of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, of June 24, 2021, and in Law 9/2017, of November 8, on public sector contracts. The contracting authority is Augas de Galicia, a public business entity attached to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Xunta de Galicia, with NIF Q1500378C and headquarters at Praza Camilo Díaz Baliño 7-9, in Santiago de Compostela.

The contract, processed through an open procedure subject to harmonized regulation and ordinary processing, was awarded on June 26, 2026, and formalized on July 24, 2026. The estimated value coincides with the base budget excluding VAT: 23,137,424.14 euros. The file reference is AUG-2025-0136 and the preliminary project key is OH.336.1197.

The award and the offers

• Contracting company: UTE COPASA Infraestructuras, S.L.U. & Pesa Medioambiente, S.A. (NIF U88903026), with address at Rúa do Paseo 25, Ourense.
• Value of the selected offer: 21,825,000.00 euros net; 26,408,250.00 euros including VAT.
• Offers received: 8 in total, 7 from small and medium-sized enterprises; none from other Member States or third countries; all submitted electronically.
• Award criteria: economic proposal (51 points), tender project (35), execution quality control plan (3), construction program (3), testing plan for electromechanical equipment (2), descriptive report of the execution process (2), report on environmental conditions and waste management (2), and technical improvements (2).
• Execution period: 33 months, with 3 months for the construction project and 30 for the execution of the work.

What will be built

The action stems from the lack of capacity of the current treatment plant to treat the wastewater it receives, both in terms of flow and pollutant load, and a sludge production higher than predicted in the original design. The expansion will allow for the treatment of a population equivalent to 99,404 inhabitants, with an average design flow of 15,639 m³/day and a maximum flow of 500 l/s.

The project includes a new secondary treatment with biological reactors of hybrid technology and the expansion of associated processes, minimizing the additional surface area and maintaining the purification service during the work. The main interventions are:

• Water line: diversion of existing collectors, new reception works, head pumping and pretreatment, IFAS biological treatment with four lines, chemical phosphorus removal, secondary settling with four clarifiers, UV disinfection with two lines, and new pumping to the submarine outfall.
• Sludge line: thickening, storage and pumping of thickened sludge, stabilization by mesophilic anaerobic digestion, dehydration, and secondary sludge silos.
• Biogas line: gasometer, gas refining treatment, engine with energy recovery, burner, and nitrogen removal treatment for dehydration waters.
• Auxiliary installations and demolition of the current pretreatment and unused installations.

European funding and regulatory framework

The co-financing is part of the Galicia Feder 2021-2027 program, within the political objective OP2 “A greener Europe”, investment priority P2A, specific objective 2.5, and action line 2.5.03. The operation is named “Improvement of sanitation and purification systems in the Arousa estuary. Vilagarcía de Arousa agglomeration”, with intervention area 066.

The work also responds to Law 1/2022, of July 12, on the improvement of the management of the integrated water cycle, and Directive (EU) 2024/3019, of November 27, 2024, on the treatment of urban wastewater, which introduces specific actions for electricity production within the treatment plant itself. The tender announcement was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on September 29, 2025 (S186) and the formalization announcement on July 30, 2026 (S145/2026).

The resolution was signed by Roi Fernández Añón, director of Augas de Galicia, by delegation of the president (Resolution of 30.1.2012, DOG no. 21, of January 31). For Vilagarcía de Arousa, the work represents the largest sanitation intervention in the estuary in years and a guarantee of compliance with the discharge parameters into the receiving environment; for the construction sector, a 33-month contract led by a Galician temporary joint venture of companies.

Source: Official Gazette of Galicia, no. 180, September 22, 2026, section VI.a, pp. 49961-49968 (official reference: CVE-DOG: qhb6nye9-9eh7-tnb0-cce7-01l44neelez3).