The beach of the Forum is cornered between the mouth of the besos river and the marina that the splendors of 2004 left as a legacy where Barcelona erased all traces of the Camp de la Bota barracks. An industrial and not very bucolic ‘skyline’ -drawn by the chimneys of the Tersa garbage incinerator and the combined cycles of Endesa and naturgy– looms over the backs of the few bathers who lie down at this point on the coast, on the edge between Sant Adria and the capital, surrounded by the coastal round and secluded end-of-town apartments Diagonal and the blocks of La Mina. The European Union has spent four years in a row warning of the poor sanitary conditions of the water that bathes that outer edge of the city. The suspense -unnoticed until now- situates the edge of that Barcelona bend on the edge of the closing if the analyzes do not improve this summer.
The directive community on the quality of bathing water is clear in this regard: in the event that the healthiness of the sea on a beach is declared insufficient for five consecutive years, “an prohibition bath perm or a recommendation permanent refrain from it & rdquor ;. The Fòrum beach would be found in the event of a veto to the bathers in case the European Environment Agency (EEA) grant it again the worst possible assessment at the end of this season.
The Generalitat and the City Council of Sant Adrià are reluctant to the idea of preventing diving into the enclave that the EU paints in red in its evaluations since 2019. Climate Action Department It responds ambiguously when asked if, in accordance with the European norm, it will deny access to the sea or advise against it from 2024 to failing the Fòrum beach again. They are not far-fetched hypotheses given the background.
“If there are no news, they will continue to be made controls and it will be open, except in the area near the mouth, which will be cordoned off in a preventive manner& rdquor;, replies the ‘department’. The end of the coast attached to the Besòs is already fenced in the usual way. The latest EEA report specifies that 45 bodies of water in the EU -none of them in Spain- were classified as unsuitable between 2017 and 2021, year after year. Of the total, 15 evaded the precept that urged them to restrict bathing.
Community blacklist
The Fòrum beach is the only one in the Barcelona metropolis that the European agency has warned about. The EEA classifies it with another 315 bathing areas in the EU, 1.5% of those studied, of which it warns that swimming in its waters “can cause diseases” for not adjusting to the levels of intestinal enterococci and the bacteria E.coli that orders to quantify.
The Generalitat and Sant Adrià discuss the trial of Brussels. Acció Climàtica argues that the tests that the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) carried out on the bank of the Fòrum between June and September 2022 accredited that the health “was excellent in eight of the samplings, good in two and only in one of the controls there was a disturbance punctual quality & rdquor ;.
The ‘conselleria’ attributes the distortion to a strong Downpour. It is the same reason to which he attributes six of the eight negative results of the exams practiced in 2019, two of the three signed in 2020 and one of the three in 2021. “The quality of the water during these episodes of rain He is poor, but after 48 hours he recovers and is excellent& rdquor;, alleges Sant Adrià.
If the conditions appropriate On most occasions, why does Brussels relegate the water from the Fòrum beach to its black list? The directive specifies an equation to weight a average of the measurements of the presence of bacteria in the last four bathing seasons, a task that the ACA assumes in Catalonia. “The AEMA makes averages for the last four years and that can worsen the results,” says Sant Adrià.
The regulation Union also stipulates that member states will ensure that measures are taken season following having received a poor rating, which “will include the prohibition of bathing or the recommendation to abstain from it” without having to wait for repeated bad records over five years to precipitate the closure. “They are recommendations to take appropriate measures in the face of heavy rains, which is already done by protocol. Therefore, the City Council is not considering closing the beach because the appropriate measures are already being taken& rdquor;, ditch Sant Adrià.
Discharges at the mouth
The AEMA puts a note without studying the reasons why, in its opinion, the waters of the beach can be improved. The ACA does cite possible Causes in a sheet in which, even without updating since 2019, it already defined the sanitary quality of the waters as insufficient.
The entity of the Generalitat reiterates that the showers intense “are the main factor of contamination & rdquor; from the beach, which is why the Besòs discharges into the Fòrum when it goes down in a mess. He adds that the overflow of the sanitation system can “produce waste punctual & rdquor; of sewage water in case of torrential rains and breakdowns.
In turn, it mentions the factories adjoining the beach as a potential risk. “They pour the cooling waters to the mouth of the river. On some occasions, they have formed foams associated with these discharges, which have subsequently reached the sea,” he says. He adds that there is also a danger of an “accidental discharge of hydrocarbons”.
The Generalitat allows companies located where the Besòs joins the Mediterranean release a huge amount of wastewater after industrial use. The environmental authorizations of Acció Climàtica grant Tersa to dispose of a maximum of 33 million cubic meters of used water each year through a canalization which overlooks the river; empowers the combined cycle plant Endesa to launch up to 1.7 million cubic meters of chilled water per day through a pipe underwater 300 meters from the shore, and that the other Endesa plant and Naturgy disseminate 62,600 cubic meters per hour at most in the Besòs.
Related news
“No one has been detected. affectation directly derived from discharges on the receiving environment, even in the case of very important flows & rdquor ;, reads one of the authorizations from the Government. In turn, it separates the industry from the detected bacteriological contamination tips. “It responds to the poor quality of the waters of the Besòs & rdquor ;, attributes the resolution, which stresses that, apart from the electric ones and the incinerator, there are other facilities that “have a significant impact on the quality of the waters and the immediate marine ecosystem, being able to significantly sensitize the bathing water area & rdquor ;.
The permits require that industrial discharges do not heat the water on the shore of the Fòrum beach by more than three degrees. Endesa, Naturgy and Tersa affirm that they carry out controls and comply with the parameters.