Better monitoring for the Mar Menor
Platforms will send information in real time via mobile communications
A CONTRACT to install the first system of buoys and sensors to continually monitor the environmental condition of the Mar Menor has been put out to tender by the national government for almost €1.5 million.
The ministry for the ecological transition’s (MITECO) coasts department (Costas) explained it will cover six areas of the lagoon.
Currently, monitoring is done by taking regular samples from boats, which cannot always pick up temporary physical/chemical/biological anomalies related to the eutrophication process, which causes algal blooms and other harmful species to proliferate, eliminating oxygen from the water (anoxia), and limiting light, heat waves and microbial activity.
There is also an EU Smart Lagoon project-funded buoy which will be integrated into the network by the Spanish
Oceanographic Institute (IEO).
The new system is financed by the government’s framework of priority actions to restore the Mar Menor (MAPMM), which has a total budget of €484.4 million, including €15M to improve knowledge and monitoring.
This network will have to integrate with others that are or will be monitoring the lagoon and the waters that flow into it from its catchment basin, so that its capacity to raise the alarm and diagnose its progress can be as robust as possible and based on the most complete and best scientific information available, MITECO emphasised.
The MAPMM will also improve the network of hydrological, geological and water quality information, with modelling of the hydrological cycle and pollution, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, and biogeochemical cycles and their impact, and will integrate information and support decision making, with independent monitoring and evaluation.
The system will also support ongoing research, helping technicians from public administrations to evaluate new proposals for projects to protect and restore the Mar Menor.
Once the contract has been awarded, the concessionary will have 15 months to get the system up and running.
The planned locations for the network are in the north and south basins, the central platform, the IEO headquarters in San Pedro del Pinatar, and the ‘golas’ (channels into the Mediterranean Sea) Estación and Marchamalo.
All the monitoring platforms will send information in real time via the GSM/GPRS mobile communications system, thus enabling third parties to download historical data and reports to be generated automatically.
The contract also includes €229,000 for spare parts in case the buoys, weather stations, multi-parameter probes, current profilers or underwater mountings need replacing.
Meanwhile, Murcia regional government has now inaugurated a new storm tank in Torre Pacheco, which cost €4.2M and can prevent up 66,000 cubic metres of rainwater from ending up in the Mar Menor.
This is in addition to the rainwater collector installed in Los Alcázares, bioreactor tanks being constructed to stop water full of nutrients, and permanent work to remove biomass.
Murcia will invest almost €8.5M in removing biomass and algae between April and September this year, and removed over 2,000 tonnes in the first two months of 2023 at a cost of €1.6M, with 40 people working on this at the moment, increasing to 100 in the summer.