ARCHIVED - Companies propose to use bacteria to clear mud from the Mar Menor

One company in Norway claims on its website that it has already been contracted

As Murcianos await solutions and action to regenerate and protect the marine environment in the Mar Menor, whose deterioration has been drastically accelerated since the flooding caused by the gota fría storm in September, it is reported in regional newspaper La Verdad that the government’s scientific committee which was formed to advise on actions is to consider proposals submitted by four companies involving the use of bacteria to eliminate the mud which has accumulated around the shore of the lagoon.

One of these companies is Brightcore Quantum, which states on its website that “our local partners have signed agreements with the provincial Gov. of Algeciras and Murcia for water remediation planned from Dec. 2019.” According to the information published in La Verdad, the company may be jumping the gun a little, but the description of the company’s technology certainly suggests that it may be of use on the Mar Menor, some of the equipment being specifically designed “to challenge the algae growth caused by excessive agriculture, industry and domestic runoffs”.

Brightcore Quantum already has experience in the remediation of large bodies of water and is currently preparing a project in Lake Okeechobee in Florida, which is ten times the size of the Mar Menor and is suffering from a proliferation of algae in the water caused by fertilizers.

Another contender is the American company Blue Planet, which offers bio-technological solutions for the treatment of water and soil, using organic substances which are both environmentally friendly and economically viable (according to the company), while Oase from Germany advocates the use of a substance they call “SchlixX Plus”. This entails active oxygen which softens organic mud and micro-organism which then devour it, while at the same time reducing the risk of an algal bloom.

Finally, the Spanish company Siorel also proposes to use micro-organisms to reduce turbidity and increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water at the same time as reducing the amount of organic matter on the seabed. Once this has been achieved, the micro-organisms would, they say, begin to de-nitrify the water in the lagoon.

Image 1: Brightcore Quantum

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