Fish Kill Spurs Cleanup of River Polluted for a Century in Spain
A nasty mix of pollutants—organochlorides, heavy metals and radionuclides—is making remediation of Spain's tainted River Ebro unusually complicated, say engineers managing the $212-million cleanup project.
Decades of pollution had gone officially unobserved until fish started dying near the small town of Flix (pronounced "fleesh"), 80 kilometers west of Tarragona on the Mediterranean Sea. Polluted discharges began flowing when a chemical plant there, now owned by Barcelona-based Ercros S.A., started operation in the late 19th century. There were no regulatory controls until 1985, says José Manuel Plaza, site manager for a joint venture, which that includes Madrid-based firms Getinsa Engineering SL and Eptisa S.A., that provides project support to Acuamed, the government-owned company responsible for regional water resources.