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ARCHIVED - Research group links drop in salinity in the Mar Menor to the heavy rain in Murcia this winter
Almost twice as much water made its way into the lagoon as is stored in the reservoirs of Murcia
The preliminary findings of a research group which has been formed to analyse the effect of changing weather patterns on the marine environment of the Mar Menor include the conclusion that a total of 135 cubic hectometers of fresh water has run off into the lagoon since last summer, contributing enormously to the drastic loss of salinity in the water.
Among the many water quality readings which cause concern in the Mar Menor the salinity level is one of the most important. It is estimated that prior to the dredging of the Canal del Estacio between the lagoon and the Mediterranean in the early 1970s the salinity of the Mar Menor was around 55 PSU, a figure which dropped to 45 PSU once the canal was open, allowing boats to navigate between the two seas. Since last September, though, it has dropped still further to between 37 and 38 PSU, almost exactly the same as on the other side of La Manga in the Mediterranean, indicating that the unique marine environment which has always characterized the area does not exist at present.
There is little doubt that the torrential rains of the last seven months or so have played their part. The “gota fría” storm in September has been described as the severest in Murcia in the last 50 years, and during the widespread flooding which it brought the research group consisting of experts from universities in Murcia, Valencia and Sevilla calculates that 94 cubic hectometers of fresh water made their way into the Mar Menor. This was followed by another 17 hm3 as a consequence of a second gota fría in December, 14 hm3 due to Storm Gloria in January and 10 hm3 in March, while in April another 15 hm3 could have been added to the total.
The wet winter has led to the amount of water in the reservoirs in the Segura basin having reached 46 per cent of capacity, a figure not seen since 2013 and an increase of around 50 per cent over the level of a year ago. To put the data into perspective, the figure of 135 hm3 is equivalent to approximately double the amount held in all of the reservoirs of the Region of Murcia (76 hm3) and more than a quarter of the total in the entire Segura basin.
The research group has been set up in conjunction with the regional government of Murcia to analyse the effect of changing weather patterns on the marine environment of the Mar Menor, with particular reference to the increased frequency of “DANAs” (isolated high altitude depressions) in south-eastern Spain and the torrential “gota fría” storms with which these phenomena are often associated. In this way the aim is to understand better how the rain which has run off into the Mar Menor over the last 30 years has affected the lagoon, as well as to analyse the effect of there being more cloudbursts than in the past on the huge aquifer which lies beneath the farmland of the Campo de Cartagena.
Despite the general consensus that the main factor behind the alteration in water quality in the Mar Menor over recent decades is the use of fertilizers in agriculture in the Campo de Cartagena, a practice which increases the nutrient content of runoff water into the lagoon, the Murcia government maintains that the importance of the rash of heavy storms in recent years must not be underestimated, and this view has been reiterated, according to regional newspaper La Verdad, by Antonio Cerdá, the former regional minister for Water, Agriculture and the Environment.
A leading member of the regional government from 1999 to 2015, Sr Cerdá is under judicial investigation for his alleged role in permitting the continual contamination of the Mar Menor through allowing negligent agricultural practices, and is reported to have presented a written document in which he rejects the notion that nitrates and nutrients from fertilizers are responsible for the degradation of the lagoon.
This, he says, is an “unproven theory”, adding that the potential causes of the deterioration in certain water quality parameters are numerous. Among them he names the runoff of clay-like substances during the floods of late 2015 and early 2016, the excessive growth of towns around the shore of the lagoon, repeated breakages in the sewage and sanitation networks in those towns, manmade alterations to the beaches, the creation of leisure marinas, the unauthorized mooring of boats, the clogging up of the “golas” between the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean, an increase in water temperature, atmospheric pollution…
In short, everything except the single aspect identified by most observers as the most important contributing factor to the changes in the Mar Menor which in 2016 led to an algal bloom turning the water an uninviting greenish colour, and which appear likely to produce a similar effect during the summer which is about to start.
Commenting on allegations that he neglected his responsibilities for ensuring that good agricultural practices were implemented, Sr Cerdá is reported to claim that his position in the regional government did not involve such responsibilities. He also states that he never instructed anyone to allow farmers in Murcia to adopt practices which contravened existing legislation, and that neither the Town Halls on the coast of the Mar Menor nor other interested parties warned the government of the precarious situation of the ecosystem of the lagoon.
Join the Mar Menor group on Facebook for info about Los Alcázares, San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, Torre Pacheco, La Unión and Cartagena and keep up to date with all the latest news and events in the Mar Menor: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarMenorNewsAndEvents/
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