The researcher from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Juan Manuel Ruiz, assures that the rise in the water table of the Quaternary aquifer does not imply a danger for the Mar Menor, unless these waters carry pollutants of agricultural origin towards the lagoon. Ruiz assures that, in the nutrient analyses that have been carried out, there are no new reasons to fear a more or less imminent episode of anoxia, although the situation is still as delicate as it has been in recent years.
The monitoring by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography shows no significant variations that would justify a higher level of alarm. In his opinion, the fact that other analyses have found abnormally high levels of phosphorus may have more to do with the serious deficiencies in the lagoon’s water monitoring system:
Nor, in his view, does the rise in the water table of the Quaternary aquifer that the Scientific Committee warned of last week constitute, in itself, a risk to the lagoon. Its ecosystem has always been well adapted to the variations in salinity caused by freshwater inflows. The real problem lies in the pollutants that these waters may carry.
And this threat would certainly not be resolved by using groundwater to irrigate agricultural production.
For this researcher from the Oceanographic Institute, the approach taken by the Ministry of Ecological Transition to the situation of the Mar Menor is the right one. The success of the project, he says, will not depend so much on the pace at which it is carried out as on the degree of coordination achieved by the administrations involved. Juan Manuel Ruiz does not think it is wrong that the regional government wants to intervene in the Rambla del Albujón, but that, in his opinion, is not the most important thing.