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Date Published: 17/06/2020
ARCHIVED - The level of oxygen in the Mar Menor is falling close to post- Gota fría levels
Low oxygen levels can lead to anoxia, an episode of which killed thousands of fish last year
Ever since the Gota Fría of September 2019 in which millions of litres of fresh water and mud poured into the Mar Menor, the lagoon has been facing the inevitable chain of events which have continued to develop in the months following the floods.
Anyone interested in understanding the complex background to the problems faced by the lagoon can find comprehensive background information by clicking here.
Immediately following the storms there were two principal problems; the volume of debris carried down into the lagoon and the fresh water itself.
Cars, street furniture and massive quantities of other debris were washed into the Mar Menor and an intensive cleaning programme was required to remove tons of rubbish and clean up the promenades and beaches, which were stripped of sand.
But the principal problem for marine life was the change in the salinity level, as the vast quantities of non-salinated water running into the lagoon pushed the water level up by 70 centimetres in the days following the storm and changed the composition of the water, so even all these months after the disaster it is now less saline than before the storm.
The marinelife in the Mar Menor thrives because of its normal high salinity and this significant drop changed the composition of the water considerably as the scientific data has shown in the last few months, making the conditions less saline; a death knoll for marinelife which requires higher salinity in order to survive.
One of the key factors in the deterioration of the Mar Menor over recent decades has been the run-off of fertilizers into the water from the farmland of the Campo de Cartagena, which produces an increase in the amount of chlorophyll in the lagoon. In the last few months there have been worries and warnings as the figure measure rose from under 1 milligram of chlorophyll per cubic metre of water to over 3 milligrams, the transparency has risen and fallen as the silt first turned the water brown, then settled to the bottom of the lagoon, cloaking the seagrass, before finally clearing a little.
But the algal growth has increased as the waters start to warm up, the visibility has once more been reduced and recently teams have been brought in to start cleaning away tons of rotting marine biomass and algae from the beaches.
However, the problem of lack of oxygen has continued and in recent days has started to drop to levels which are worring the scientific team monitoring the health of the lagoon, as lack of oxygen in the water leads to anoxia and this can kill the marine life in the lagoon as it did at the end of September last year.
In September the huge volumes of sweet water which had flowed into the Mar Menor remained in a mass which failed to initially mix with saline water, and this settled in the north-westerly corner of the lagoon off the shores of san Pedro del Pinatar, leading to an episode of anoxia killing tens of thousands of fish and crustaceans which washed up on the beaches of the municipality.
It was a terrible sight, fish gasping for air on the beaches, amidst a mass of dead bodies and it took days for municipal services to clear the tons of rotting fish from the shores. Gradually the water dispersed and mixed with the saline water, and slowly the water level dropped back to its normal height, but the level of salinity has been low ever since, almost on a par with that of the Mediterranean on the other side of the la Manga strip/sleeve.
Since then, the focus has been on the threat of eutrophication and the increasing levels of algal growth in the lagoon, which were the focal point of attention during the last two weeks.
But the presence of oxygen in the lagoon has decreased in recent days, and on Thursday 11th June it fell to 4.35 milligrams per litre, a level not recorded since September 26th last year, 10 days after the Gota Fría, when the levels were 3.9 milligrams, according to official data published by the regional government this week.
Since 2017 a scientific team has overseen the monitoring of water quality in the lagoon and takes frequent readings of a number of parameters to monitor developments and changes in water quality.
The oxygen measurement on Monday showed a slight rebound to 4.35 milligrams, two less than on June 1st and three less than on May 25th, but still sufficiently low for the alarm bells to be sounding within the scientific monitoring team.
The turbidity level has dropped to 1,827 nephelometric units, compared to 2.08 on June 11th, 2.48 on June 1st or 3.8 on May 25th and the chlorophyll levels rose on Monday to 1,471 micrograms per liter.
The temperature remains at 24 degrees in June, one degree lower than in late May, and lower than the same time last year, while salinity has increased to 39.8, but far from the 44.7 observed on 11th September last year just before the Gota Fría struck.
The regional government is under significant pressure to “do something” about the continued flow of fresh/nitrate-laden water into the Mar Menor and the scientific community is divided over how the balance of the water can be maintained.
Investigating the opening of a channel by Playa Veneziola to see if this is affecting the salinity/oxygen levels
The department of environment is investigating the opening of locks on a water channel in Veneziola, at the northern of La Manga del Mar Menor,which have been opened.
It’s not clear at the moment whether this was a deliberate act by somebody who believes that opening the channels between the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean will improve the condition of the lagoon, or whether the plate on the gates has simply corroded.
The channel has been closed off for several years and is clogged with mud and debris.
There are four other golas, or channels, running between the two bodies of water through which there is an interchange of water from the Mediterranean, allowing the passage of vessels.
There have been calls from some bodies to open the golas and permit a greater flow of water, but this has been resisted by the scientific advisors who believe that the fragile ecosystem of the Mar Menor will be damaged further by this process.
Inspectors are attempting to clarify what has happened and whether this could be affecting the oxygen level in the water, although one effect which has been noticeable is that mud has been “sucked” out of the encañizadas, the area which uses the traditional fishing methods first used by the Moors several hundred years ago in this area in which nets are laid in a “snail pattern” to trap fish in areas which are shallow, by the flow of water from the Mediteeranean in through this channel.
It’s believed the channel has been open for some time.
However, there is agreement that reducing the flow of fresh water into the lagoon from surrounding agricultural holdings is essential, although as has been explained many times before, this is a complex process which involves many different parties, who have yet to reach agreement on the correct course of action to take, how this can be achieved and who will pay for it.
From last week:
Drainage channel D-7
One part of the proposals included within the 'Solutions for expansion of D7 drainage capacity and flow relief in the surroundings of the municipality of Los Alcázares,' project of the CHS which has a total cost of 17,296,624 euros is to increase the capacity of what is referred to as “drainage channel D7” .
Drainage channel D7 is four kilometres long, was built by the CHS, and disgorges into the rambla del Albujón, so although it still carries water to the Mar Menor, it helps to alleviate the pressure on Los Alcázares urban town by taking it to the side of the main urban area, not through the centre of it.
This part of the project is budgeted at 2.5 million euros, and would increase the capacity of this channel from 19 cubic meters per second to over 60 and would help to alleviate the flow towards the town at a point where three drainage channels converge outside of the urban area of the town near to the AP-7.
Drainage channels habitually carry silt and mud during heavy rain and where three such channels converge by the AP-7 a “dam effect” overwhelms the existing structure and floods agricultural fields alongside the motorway, gathering more silt and causing flooding in the town centre as the floodwaters find a different route into the town. The first part of the project requires a 2.5 million euro investment and the Mayor of Los Alcázares said last week that he has again urged the CHS to achieve the necessary licences and begin work on this first part of the project. Encouraging noises have, he said, been heard in response.
The overall project is complicated because it requires expropriations of many parcels of privately owned land and the involvement of several different bodies and although it would not alleviate the flow of water into the Mar Menor, would help to alleviate the flooding problem in Los Alcázares.
CHS , rambla del Albujón and EDAR waste treatment station in Torre Pacheco
It has been calculated that the Rambla del Albujón, which flows down into the Mar Menor discharges more than five million cubic meters of water per year into the lagoon and the CHS, which has responsibility for the infrastructure, has been under considerable pressure to reduce this flow.
In the middle of May the CHS re-activated the Albujón pumping plant, removing water from the rambla and re-distributing it back to the farmers forming part of the authorised network of irrigators, mixed with water received from the Tajo-Segura Trasvase and water generated from the legal desalination plants, thus reducing the flow of fresh water into the lagoon.
In just the first week of testing the equivalent of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools of fresh water was prevented from reaching the Mar Menor.
One of the principal problems in Torre Pacheco continues to be the water treatment plant in the municipality which has been denounced by campaigners from the Stop Inundaciones! Campaign several times, claiming that the plant is discharging untreated salt and nitrate brines into the rambla as it lacks the capacity to cope with the volume of floodwater run-offs it processes.
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/
The CHS continues to monitor this situation and following the latest episodes of rains, has once again been testing the huge volumes of water which run out from this plant as can be seen from the video above.
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