Positive step for Phase II Portman Bay Regeneration Project

Portman Bay Regeneration, visit by the new General Director to project research station

2010-12-08

The General Director for Sustainability and the Coast, Pedro Antonio Ríos yesterday gave hope to all those wishing to see the Portman Bay regeneration project moved forward, during a visit to the experimental laboratory set up the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs in collaboration with the University of Murcia in Portman Bay. 

During the visit he presented the pilot projects second phase of regeneration, which has been  allocated just over 3.5 million euros and talked about plans to include financing for the regeneration in 2012 budgets..

The laboratory, within the bay is conducting research into the decontamination of the sands of the bay  after millions of tonnes of waste materials were dumped in the bay during the years of mining,  by the  mining companies of Peñarroya y Portmán Golf.

We have written a piece about the history of how the contaminated waste arrived in the bay, and give some background detail about the project to date, so to read that first, Click, Portman bay regeneration. 

A first research phase of the project received funding of 5.31 million euros, which enabled researchers to work in two experimental plots, build a research building and a platform 300 meters long and stabilise an area of approximately 118,500 square metres. 

The results obtained from this first experimental phase are crucial in determining how the future regeneration works should be carried out, helping researchers to understand the effects of moving contaminated materials, how to treat it and the effects it has on the surrounding environment during the removal of materials.

It´s a highly complex subject, which is why the process of research and study has been so detailed, but this process needs to continue, so the financing for this next phase of investigation is what was announced yesterday during the visit.

This will comprise an additional research budget of 3.5 million euros, which will extend the area of treatment, and give researchers the funds to continue investigations into methods of treatment in situ, removing metallic compounds from the sands, without having to move all of the materials.

This money will also pay for a 100 metre long walkway to connect the town with the paseo.
The Director General is new to the job, having been in this position for just a couple of weeks, but as he is murcian born, hopes are high that he will show more enthusiasm for moving the project forward than his predecessors. Rios said that it is not worth mourning for the preceding  years of delays and frustration, and has pledged to give a real boost to the project with thefirst meeting of the monitoring committee due to take place in January 2011.

By the end of January the final studies into the environmental impact report will all have been concluded and summarised, part of which involved the transfer of three million tonnes of waste with full EU complinace, part of the evaluation process. 

Although the aim of the local council is to secure funds for the project to move ahead fully, Rios was cautious in his promises, saying that the economic situation today is not what it was three years ago, and that the financing of this project will have to be secured over a period of years, which is part of what his department are currently evaluating and examining. 

The project to regenerate the bay consists primarily of removing mineral waste to recuperate a 250 metre long stretch of coast and its removal to the end of the San Jose mine, which part of the project would be undertaken by the government, then the subsequent construction of a puerto deportivo, a marine sporting area, dedicated to fishing, linked to the rehabilitation of public areas of beaches and gardens, works which would be undertaken by the Town hall. 

The DG would not be drawn on the subject of whether the regeneration of the bay would be compatible with the project under consideration for the construction of the El Gorguel container shipping port nearby, saying that this was not his departments responsibility. 

Rios was accompanied on his visit by the head of the head of demarkation for the region of Murcia, Paca Baraza, various members of the La Union government, members  of the neighbours association and the team from the University of Murcia who are carrying out the investigations.