Sant Adrià de Besòs' contaminated beach to continue closed for fourth consecutive year
Recovery works potentially to restart in August, with over €2 million in expenses
The Litoral beach in Sant Adrià de Besòs, just the first seaside city north of Barcelona, will continue to be closed for the fourth consecutive year due to the contaminated residues.
The beach closed on May 28, 2021 and despite last year's cleansing, recent sea storms have arisen contaminated residues again.
Recovery works, despite not having an actual starting date, could potentially start between the last weeks of July and early August. However, the accumulated expense has already surpassed €2 million.
The first problems appeared in 2017, when a sea storm broke a pipeline, and during the first reconstruction, doubts regarding the contamination of the beach appeared.
Different analyses between 2018 and 2021 showed that staying on the beach was safe, as the first 80 centimeters below ground were free of polluted residues, however, those reports were linked to not experiencing any other soil change in the future.
But Filomena storm in 2021 and the works to dock a submarine fiber optic cable resurfaced the polluted elements. Since then, the beach has been inaccessible and closed to the public.
The city mayor, Filo Cañete, told residents that there is still no date set for the beach's reopening.
The plan was to allow beach-goers from 2023, but a new sea storm changed all the plans.
Once opened again, experts will need to study the soil regularly to avoid any health issues.