Toni Miragall: "The analysis of the water at the Arenal beach is within the correct parameters"
During the weekend, Ecologists in action was on the Arenal beach alerting visitors and tourists not to bathe due to insufficient water quality due to a break in the emissary.
Faced with this social alarm, the councilor responsible for beaches, Toni Miragall, explained that the result of the microbiotic analysis carried out a few days ago, by the council itself, confirms that the values are within normal parameters and there is no risk for the bathers. Likewise, the mayor has specified that the analytical report states verbatim that "the results are good, very good. Everything is in order within the quality regulations for bathing water."
Response to Ecologists in Action
Miragall has continued to respond to each of the points that environmentalists have been reporting. Regarding the environmentalists' complaint that the level of enterococci exceeded the permitted limit, Miragall has stated that this value "depends on what type of analysis is involved and in this case, it is not a risk for bathers."
On the other hand, and before the request for the closure of this area of the beach, the councilor for beaches has assured that if it has not been closed "it is because after assessing the situation and the analytics neither the technicians nor the Ministry have considered it to be a danger for health" and added that "the brown color of the water is not faecal waste, as the group claims".
Miragall explained that the mixture between purified water and salt water produces that darker color, "in fact, since the break in the pipe was detected, more treatment is being given to the water that is purified".
As for the outfall repair works, these are scheduled to begin in the coming days. The works have already been awarded and the area of action has been defined.
municipal statement
Given the information issued on the alleged toxicity of the discharge generated by the submarine outfall on the Arenal beach, the Department of the Environment and Beaches reports:
- That both the Public Entity for Wastewater Sanitation (EPSAR) and the General Directorate for Water Quality, both official departments dependent on the Department of the Environment, have provided the City Council with various analyzes carried out on this beach in recent weeks and all are within the optimal parameters to allow bathing.
- That this breakdown is being monitored, the repair of which has already been authorized and will begin in the next few days, and that at no time has any instruction been received on the need to close the beach from the agencies that are responsible for ensuring for the healthiness of the bathing waters.
- That EPSAR ensures that the discharge is completely purified water and that, due to this fault in the outfall, it has even reinforced the purification processes at the plant to ensure that the discharge is harmless.
- That the EPSAR will perform two weekly analyzes until the incident is resolved.
- That the City Council itself commissioned an independent microbiology analysis (carried out on Wednesday, June 1) with samples from the place where the sand outfall broke. This test confirms that the results are good and within the bathing water quality regulations.
Finally, emphasize that the Xàbia City Council is the first interested in guaranteeing the safety of bathers, so that, in the event that the competent bathing water quality control body advises any preventive or informative measure, the I would take over immediately.