Palamós City Council and the Catalan Water Agency have agreed on regular bathing water analyses until the wastewater treatment plant damaged by storm Harry is back in service. The measure comes after the complete flooding of the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves Palamós, Calonge i Sant Antoni, Mont ras, Vall llobrega and Palafrugell.
The facility was flooded by the overflowing of the Aubí stream, in the southern part, after rainfall of 223 millimeters in less than 48 hours in Palafrugell. In some parts of the treatment plant, the water reached 1.9 meters. Part of the equipment has been damaged and the repair is not expected to be completed until this summer.
Periodic controls in the bathing area
While the plant cannot recover its full capacity, the council and the ACA have agreed on specific controls in the bathing area. Those analyses will be carried out periodically to monitor the evolution of water quality.
The mayor of Palamós, Maria Puig, explained in the last plenary session that now basic treatments of solids and a biological treatment for water control are being done at the exit point.
"Right now we are doing basic solids treatments and a biological water control treatment where it comes out" Maria Puig, mayor of Palamós
Puig detailed that the discharge is carried out at 1,1 kilometers and at 30 meters deep, with a system designed to favor dispersion.
"It is a strategy that what it does is disperse" Maria Puig, mayor of Palamós
The mayor admitted that it is not an optimal solution, although she defended that the quality controls carried out until now place the state of the water in good and even very good parameters in different points and depths.
"It is not an optimal solution, but with this dispersion and the quality controls that have been carried out, the water quality is good, even very good" Maria Puig, mayor of Palamós
The municipal forecast is that the treatment plant can return to operate at 100% this summer, once the repairs of the equipment affected by the flood are finished.
Cleanups continue in the Gola del Ter
In Torroella de Montgrí, intense beach cleaning tasks continue since the storm due to the accumulation of plant debris and domestic waste dragged by the Ter river. After a first massive arrival of remains with the passage of Harry, management works with controlled burns were activated.
Before completing the removal, a new entry of waste due to subsequent rains reloaded the coastline. Given this situation, the Torroella de Montgrí City Council has formalized an emergency contract to reinforce the response.
This same week, the council and other involved agents, among them the Natural Park, have carried out more controlled burns of vegetation in the southern sector of the Gola del Ter, where part of the work to remove the accumulated debris continues to be concentrated.