Com podem evaluar l'estat ecologic d'un riu?

Com podem evaluar l'estat ecologic d'un riu? Apren aqui, escoltant una entrevista a la Silvia Gili, directora de Projecte Rius, per Catalunya Radio.

Interview with Pedro Arrojo

Pedro Arrojo is a well known economist who has made a significant contribution to water policy in Spain. From his academic base in Zaragoza, he provided the intellectual muscle to overturn the predatory water projects planned for the Ebro River. His work has been recognized internationally -- most notably perhaps as the winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003. In this interview [listen here] with Joan Barril and Joan Olle on the radio program El Cafe de la Republica, Professor Arrojo discusses the special attention that Spaniards have recently given to water and rivers.

While I had read Arrojo's work, I had not heard him speak. Arrojo's tone is gentle, conciliatory, and understanding. It was a pleasant contrast to many of the more strident voices in the environmental movement. And yet, his gentleness did not compromise his position. Arrojo did an excellent job communicating substantive content without being dogmatic or righteous. This interview shows that Arrojo is a role model not only for this intellectual contribution, but also for his communication skills.

Preliminary Research Hypothesis

My research hypothesis is that downstream water treatment costs may be reduced through improved watershed management practices upstream. To test this hypothesis I will conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis of river restoration options available to watershed managers. However the economic analysis cannot be conducted in isolation from the existing biophysical, political and historical context. There are relevant biophysical processes that dictate the flow of contaminants throughout the watershed, just as there are relevant historical struggles that have determined today’s resource use. Understanding the watershed’s biophysical and historical context is essential for making insightful economic analysis of river restoration options currently available to water resource managers.

Preliminary Research Question: Is River Restoration Profitable?

Can river restoration be sold as an investment for water users? In other words, can restoration activities be justified by a reduction in water management costs downstream? Initially, I considered studying the financial costs of all water users downstream but I may need to focus on water treatment facilities since they are the largest water user with the highest expenditures.

To answer my question, I must understand the relationship between the water quality and treatment cost. If one could establish this relationship, one might find that a marginal improvement in water quality could lead to significant reduction in treatment costs. Since the Llobregat is highly polluted (low water quality), my initial assumption is that the treatment facilities are probably operating on the higher and more expensive end of this relationship.

Of course, specifying the relationship between water quality and treatment cost will not be easy. There are several obstacles. For example, there might be thresholds associated with certain contaminants which would create a step function. Another challenge will be defining “water quality” or “water pollution”. Both terms are comprised of many variables, often in different units. Similarly, cost data may fluctuate over time for reasons independent of water quality.

Studies have found that cleaner surface water can reduce treatment costs, although it is unclear by how much. One study in Texas found that a 1 percent increase in turbidity was associated with increased chemical cost of 0.25%. Furthermore, when comparing the presence or absence of a contamination index, the presence of contamination increased the chemical cost of water treatment an additional USD $20 to a total of USD $95 per million gallons (3,785 m3) (Dearborn 1998). More information on the total cost of water treatment would be necessary to assess the relative magnitude of these values. Also, one cannot expect to find the same level of savings as in the well known example of New York City drinking water because most urban areas already have constructed water filtration systems (Thompson 2007).

Is the ecosystem services framework useful for river restoration in the Barcelona metropolitan region?

The ecosystem services framework may provide a useful entry point for addressing competing water needs in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. In the spring of 2008 the Barcelona Metropolitan Region confronted its worst droughts in recent history. The Catalan Government implemented severe water restrictions and initiated emergency plans including the importation of desalinated water on boats from southern Spain. Authorities were concerned that water restrictions would exacerbate citizen discontent and destabilize a weak economy dependent on tourism revenue. At the same time, the European Union has mandated watershed restoration plans to obtain “good ecological status” in all water bodies including rivers (ACA 2006). The Catalan government is under pressure to meet the needs of its residents without further degrading riparian ecosystems.

Can ecosystem services help uncover win-win solutions to address Catalonia’s water problems? I begin my research open with the possibility that the ecosystem services framework is significantly more limited than advocates make it out to be. At least the literature on hydrologic services makes it clear that tradeoffs will be inevitable (Brauman et al. 2007). Furthermore, the links between water attributes such as quantity, quality, timing, and location are not easily translated into numerical values for policy makers. Perhaps surface water quality provides one of the clearest links between restoring “good ecological status” and human well-being.

Another more complex connection between ecosystem functions and human well-being relates land use, water quality and water treatment. The urbanization of a watershed with impervious surfaces is closely related to diminished water quality (Moglen & Kim 2007). This creates an incentive for water users, treatment managers and service providers to minimize development impacts on the hydrologic cycle. Are water users, treatment managers and service providers willing to pay for land conservation to protect their watershed and reduce (or stabilize) water treatment expenses? A study on this question with water service providers in California found that land was too expensive to offset the ecosystem benefits gained from protection (Thompson 2007). They concluded that for conservation to make financial sense, the hydrologic services alone are not enough. To make a convincing case for land conservation, the ecosystem services will need to be bundled. Attempts to calculate the bundled value of ecosystem services across a landscape are still preliminary. Only recently have researchers used this approach to identify and prioritize areas for conservation (Chan et. al 2006; Naidoo & Ricketts 2006). Indeed, much of the discussion on ecosystem services has been in a conservation context. The degraded conditions of the Llobregat watershed will permit an exploration of the utility of the ecosystem services concept in a restoration context. Are the ecosystem services sufficient to merit their restoration?

More on Ecosystem Services

People and cities depend on the goods and services produced by our planet’s ecosystems. This dependent relationship between human well-being and the biophysical world is eloquently encapsulated by the relatively new notion of ecosystem services. The food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink all derive from ecosystem processes. However our dependence on these ecosystems has not prevented us from stressing them to the point where we have reduced their capacity to meet our needs (MA 2003). To maintain our valuable ecosystem services intact we must improve our management and decision making. The ecosystem services framework promises to generate the interdisciplinary tools of the future that can meet this challenge. This approach is quintessentially interdisciplinary as it weaves together the physical, biological, and social sciences into a framework for decision-making. The successful integration of these fields into a coherent and practical framework has the potential to transform environmental policy at all scales.

Proponents of ecosystem services have argued that this framework offers the most promising way forward for the field of conservation biology (Armsworth et al. 2007). Protecting our life support systems has also resonated with advocates for the global poor (Sachs & Reid 2006). Major research institutions, conservation organizations, foundations and the private sector are investing in advanced research on ecosystem services. Stanford University has selected this topic as a core area of research. Consistent with this objective, the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to create the Natural Capital Project[1] – a bold new initiative that brings together leading intellectuals and conservation practitioners to create new decision making tools for ecosystem managers. Millions of dollars are being invested in this initiative (pers. com. P. Kareiva, 2007). These groups are gambling that a breakthrough in ecosystem services research will open new avenues for solving sustainability challenges. The vast potential of this field has not escaped attention of the popular media (Montenegro 2008). Ecosystem services research promises to find win-win solutions that have a broad appeal to government leaders, business owners, and the public at large. New ecosystem management approaches that weave together the natural and social sciences could transform conservation biology, land-use planning and environmental policy.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) defines ecosystem services as the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems (MA 2003). This concise definition has become the standard for the field. In fact, the MA has become the benchmark document for nearly every study grappling with ecosystem services. A coalition of United Nations agencies spearheaded the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment by bringing together international experts in the natural and social sciences. This team was asked to synthesize the existing scientific information on the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. Their report targeted global leaders who manage ecosystems and look after the well being of their constituents (Carpenter et al. 2006). In the process of conducting this assessment, the MA organized our understanding of ecosystem services and mapped out the health of our planet. With regular updates scheduled every 5 to 10 years, the MA process has been modeled after the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (MA 2003).

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[1] See www.naturalcapitalproject.org

Field Work Reflection: Closer to a dissertation topic

Researching for Locals and Academics

My goal this summer was to find a research question that contributed to two distinct conversations. On the on hand, I want to address local problems in the Llobregat basin. Simultaneously, I want my research to advance the literature on river restoration or management. Finding a question that speaks both to local users and the larger academic community has not been easy. Many local questions could be answered by environmental consultants without creating new knowledge. As such, they are not appropriate for PhD research. On the other hand, I would be uncomfortable answering a question devoid of local salience.

This summer I conducted preliminary field work that introduced me to the Llobregat River, its managers, history, and competing uses. From mid June to mid August, I interviewed experts and gathered documentation in Barcelona. In order to see the current river conditions first hand, I hiked the length of the river from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. Over the course of ten days and 170 kilometers, I met local users and neighbors who shared their knowledge of the river, its past, present and potential future.

Framing the Research in the Llobregat Watershed

The Llobregat River is highly polluted and heavily managed. Still, millions depend on surface water from the Llobregat for industrial, agricultural and domestic uses. Treating the highly polluted river for drinking water purposes exposes Barcelona residents to several public health risks that few are willing to discuss openly. Water managers at the two treatment facilities have been dealing with industrial contaminants and mining residue dumped into the Llobregat for decades. Potash mines have been contaminating the Llobregat with salts since the 1930s, and industrial waste has been dumped in the river since the 1960s. This has not stopped the region from relying on the Llobregat River to meet its basic water needs.

The private company Aigües de Barcelona (AGBAR) built the first water treatment plant on the shores of the Llobregat in the 1950’s. Since then they have mixed treated surface water with high quality groundwater from the Llobregat Delta aquifer. ABGAR built the water treatment facility in the lower segment of the river outside the city of Barcelona in the suburb of Sant Joan Despí. This site has proven unfortunate because it is located downstream of major industries at the bottom of the watershed. The surface water to ground water ratio at the AGBAR plant is usually around 50/50, and the average intake from the Llobregat is 3 cubic meters per second (m³/s). During the dry season, the AGBAR facility frequently diverts the entire Llobregat River into the treatment plant. However the river does not run dry because immediately after the diversion point, another pipe dumps industrial waste and treated wastewater into the riverbed.

In the 1970’s the Catalan Government built a second water treatment plant upstream in the town of Abrera. This plant is managed by the public water agency Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) who is responsible for treating water from the Llobregat and Ter Rivers and then re-selling it to municipal providers. While the extraction point in Abrera is upstream of many industries, they too have considerable problems maintaining water quality. On the day of my visit, the water was dark red prior to filtration. I was told that this was unusual, but later when I visited the ABGAR plant they asked me if the ATLL plant in Abrera continued to struggle with the red dyes.

Both facilities use classic water treatment technology with large sedimentation ponds and sand filters. They avoid disinfecting with chlorine as much as possible because it reacts with organic matter to produce carcinogenic trihalomethanes. Instead, they disinfect with with ozone (O₃) and chlorine dioxide. Within the last decade, both treatment plants have installed activated carbon filters. The carbon filters are expensive, and the maintenance consists of shipping them to large ovens in Italy where they burn off filtered material. After every burning, the damaged carbon must be replaced with new material. These maintenance expenses may be a critical component of a dissertation that tries to relate treatment costs with water quality.

While the activated carbon filters brought considerable improvements in drinking water quality, the taste has remained poor. Both water treatment plants are now investing in advanced membrane technology that will remove additional contaminants, especially various salts compounds. The Llobregat River becomes extraordinarily salty after it passes the potash mines in the towns of Sallent and Cardona. The salts in the Llobregat have plagued drinking water managers for decades and have been responsible for a consistently poor taste in Barcelona’s tap water. In the 1980’s, the Catalan government tried to mitigate salt contamination by diverting salt runoff from the mines into a long pipe that ran 100 kilometers from mines to the Mediterranean. This pipe collects the salty stormwater runoff and to some degree, has reduced the river’s salinity. However maintaining the pipe has been difficult and periodic breaks have released heavy salt loads onto fields destroying crops or into the river disrupting aquatic ecosystems.

When I visited the water treatment plants, both were undergoing major construction to install the modern desalination technology. It was odd to see desalination systems being installed in a freshwater ecosystem and I wondered if there was any precedent for this absurdity. Both of these systems are costing millions of Euros. The public agency ATLL is purchasing electrodialysis desalination equipment manufactured by General Electric, while downstream, the private firm AGBAR is investing in reverse osmosis. Both systems are highly energy intensive and costly to maintain. Nevertheless, AGBAR is a profit driven firm that would not have invested in desalination had the project not been deemed financial viable. At the same time, I suspect that these projects have been partially subsidized by the European Union or other government agencies, thereby reducing the investment burden.

The investment in desalination shows that water managers in Catalonia are implementing an “end of pipe” solution to mitigate its environmental woes. Instead of addressing the contamination at its source, water managers have chosen to make a huge investment in a new technology that is costly to purchase and maintain. In this respect, they are moving in the opposite direction of water managers from New York City who have avoided expensive filtration by investing in watershed management upstream. The case of New York City’s water supply is perhaps the most frequently cited example of intelligent water management because the protection of the Catskill watershed came at only a fraction of the cost of the planned filtration plant. The financial savings have been estimated at USD $6 to $8 billion, plus $300 million per year in maintenance (Chichilnisky & Heal 1998, National Research Council 2000). While these avoided costs have erroneously been referred to as the “value” of the ecosystem services, it is nevertheless a good example of a successful strategy that protects ecosystems and improves water management.

Initially I was discouraged to learn about the magnitude of the investment in desalination along the shores of the Llobregat. Had I began my dissertation five years ago, I probably could have made a strong case in favor of river restoration at its source, mirroring the experience from New York City, and potentially help redirect the millions invested in desalination into watershed management instead. So now that this investment is underway, are there no longer economic arguments in favor of river restoration? Is the concept of ecosystem services only useful for averting infrastructure investments? How can the notion of ecosystem services still be applied in the Llobregat watershed?

My interviews with river managers in Spain made it clear that they do not need a dissertation to inform them that the Llobregat River is polluted. Nor are they interested in a dissertation about river restoration methods – for the most part, they have the capacity to restore geomorphology and improve wastewater treatment. However river managers did express interest in studies that could strengthen linkages between restoration activities upstream and water users downstream. If river managers had more evidence that restoration investments in the upper parts of the watershed could produce tangible benefits for water users throughout the river’s course, this evidence could refocus attention away from the “end of pipe” approaches and encourage restoration efforts in the upper parts of the watershed.

The questions posed by water managers in Spain fit nicely into a broader discussion in the academic literature on ecosystem services.

Day 10: Sant Joan Despi - Mediterranean Sea

On my last day hiking the Llobregat River, I am once again joined by Sara. In the morning we meet with Joan Bordas and Pep Clavero, both of which are expert botanists. Joan is the sixth generation in his family to work as a gardener/horticulturalist! He has followed a long family tradition of managing Jardinerias Bordas, since 1918. Joan and Pep first take me to the wetlands at Molins de Rei. They are a beautiful example of what the lower Llobregat could look like in the future. The wetlands are filled with cattails, as well as riparian trees common in the Mediterranean such as pollancre (Populus Alba, Populos Alba Nivea), Lladuners (Celtis Australis), Tamariu (Tamarix Gallica, Tamarix, Africanica). Unlike the biologists from the University of Barcelona, Joan and Pep held the invasive cane in high regard. They point out that the cane serves as habitat for other species and they dispute the claim that the cane stalls the classic Mediterranean succession.

In the wetlands the point out the presence of Salicra a plant with purple flowers that indicates relatively clean water. They also show me a native grass called 'grava de Sitges' (Paspaloum Districhum) that uses 15 times less water than the English species often planted by landscape architects in Spain. We also found Estramoni (Datura Stramonium) a plant used turn of the century painters and architects to get high and hallucinate.

I asked Joan and Pep about the possiblity of restoring the salt mountains in Sallent, and they assure me that it can be done.

I see construction near the Llobregat from here and to the Mediterranean. Everywhere there are machines moving earth from one place to the next, installing pipes or taking them out. I pass the water treatment plant managed by AGBAR at Sant Joan Despi, but I'm confident that Roger Lloret will give me a personal tour next week.

After el Prat del Llobregat, home of the historian Juame Codina, I encounter the spot where engineers changed the course of the Llobregat river in order to expand the industrial zone of the Zona Franca. This monumental feat of engineering, raises the question: if we can move a river, can't we restore it as well?

At this point, I begin to smell the salt of the ocean. There is more algae in the river than upstream, and the river islands and meanders disappear.

Here the Llobregat ceases to look like the river that I had followed for ten days. It looks more like an extension of the Mediterranean, flowing upstream. When the engineers changed the course of the river, did they really bring the Llobregat to the Sea, or did they allow the Sea to gobble up the Llobregat inland?

Finally, I see where the Llobregat meets the Mediterranean.
In the final kilometer we enter the protected area of the Llobregat Delta. A chain linked fence prevents us from following the course of the river, and guides us to trails in the delta created for bird watchers and cyclists. My sense of direction tells me that the path will meet the Mediterranean south west from where the Llobregat meets the sea. And indeed, by the time we hit the beach we see dikes guiding the Llobregat into the Mediterranean about 750 meters to our left. The path ends, and we see the beach, but do not have access. Instead we are surrounded by chained linked fences, and signs warning us not to trespass. Futhermore, major construction was drilling next to us, causing a horrendous noise. Sara and I are tempted to jump the fence, even though we saw a security truck slowly pass and give us a menacing stare. It was frustrating to walk the entire length of the Llobregat, only to be treated like a prisoner at the end. The freedom and liberty I had enjoyed over the past 10 days, following the river, and moving around obstacles, came to an abrupt end, as I was constrained by the urban insfrastructure and the urban norms that restricted my access, and prevented me from swimming in the Mediterranean, as I had hoped.

Day 9: Manresa - San Joan Despi

In Martorell I met with Rafa Diez and Roger Arque from Martorell Viu, a group of concerned citizens who work to maintain the environmental integrity of their town and its surroundings. Another major tributary to the Llobregat, the Anoia, is supposed to join the main stem of the river here in Martorell. But Rafa explains that in the 1970s the Anoia became so polluted, that the water treatment plant managed by AGBAR downstream insisted that the Anoia river be put in a tube and diverted until after the water plant extracted its water for the city of Barcelona. I was shocked at the audacity that water managers had to pipe a major tributary of the Llobregat. It also showed an end of pipe approach to water management. Like the desalinization plants being installed today, the diversion of the Anoia river effectively manages the waste but does not address the problem at its source. Following the diversion pipe, the volume of the Anoia decreases significantly. We saw fish kill nearby, baking in the hot sun.

Rafa and Roger also showed me la Horta, an agricultural field in the Llobregat and Anoia floodplain that the Catalan Land Instiute (Institut Catala del Sol) and the City Hall of Martorell would like to develop for housing. Many from Martorell are resisting this development, and they correctly point out that the Catalan law does not permit new development in the floodplain. They showed me maps of the floodplain at 10 year, 50 year and 100 year return periods. The maps are a bit suspect because they have straight lines in them and I wonder how these can be accurately drawn without a complete model for the watershed. I raised another eyebrow with Rafa told me that the engineer responsible for the floodplain maps insisted that he was contracted to only calculate flood boundaries for one side of the river. *!?. This conversation sparks my curiousity as to how these lines are made and my intuition tells me that politics and economic interests may be helping draw the boundaries in order to assist urban development.

The Roman Via Agustus, which connected the silver mines of southern Spain to Rome, passes through Martorell and crosses the Llobregat at El pont del diable 'Devil's Bridge'. Orignally built by the Romans, the current structure is medieval. Still, this point has remained a strategic center for both ancient and modern infrastruture. Roads, rails, pipes and other infrastruture enter the Barcelona Metropolitan region through this narrow segment of flat lands between two mountain ranges.As I entered the final and most urban segment of the Llobregat, I encounter workers building vairous infrastructure projects. First I meet workers who are doubling the capacity of the salt pipe orginally built for the mines in Sallent. The increased capacity will accomodate the salty waste generated by the new desalination plants in Abrera and Sant Joan Despi. I also encounter workers building a walking trial on the left bank. With funds negotiated from the Spanish Government in compensation for the environmental damange caused by the high speeed train (AVE), the Catalan Water Agency and the local city halls are investing in the left bank of the river for recreational use. The plan is to connect Martorell with the Delta. I was encouraged to see this work, and suspect that it will be a success, with considerable public use.

I also saw heavy machinery cruising up and down the river near Palleja. Later, an engineer told me that this operation is meant to increase aquifer filtration from the Llobregat. In fact, AGBAR and the Catalan Water Agency have being paying someone to plow the river for over 30 years! They have found that contaminants, which I assume to be some sort of hydrocarbon, coat the bottom the the Llobregat and prevent aquifer filtration. The heavy machinery moves the bottom of the river to allow water to percolate into the aquifer. It seemed like such a rudimentary, if not primitive method for managing an aquifer. It also contradicted what a groundwater specialist at the ACA had told me when she insisted that the surface water of the Llobregat was not connected to the aquifer at the Delta. It still is unclear to me how the surface water and aquifer are connected, and if the contaminants from the Llobregat affect groundwater sources.

I also ran into Manuel Alvarez, an engineer working on restoring meanders in the lower segment of the Llobregat. The funds for this project also come from the compensation from the high speed train project. The goal is to create small islands in the Llobregat, which, I assume, will slow down the river, increase filtration, and create habitat for biodiversity. The project is being executed by well known construction firms. Lluis Gode at the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) had told me about these restoration projects, and I was excited to see its execution on the ground. It will be interesting to follow the progress of this project in the next few years. There also may be opportunities to learn from this project. At first glance, the execution of this restoration project did not adopt an adaptive management approach.

The trail was dusty more unpleasant than I expected. I passed heavy industry, including the CELSA plant that melts discarded metals, and is a visual eye-sore in the lower Llobregat Valley. Being surrounded by heavy industry, I was suprised to run into Paco, a sheep herder who has been taking care of his flock in the lower Llobregat for decades. It was a shame that I ran into Paco at the end of the day, because by that time I was too tired to ask too many questions. I hope to run into Paco again someday, because I had the sense that he knowns the lower part of the Llobregat well.

Day 8: Monistrol de Montserrat - Abrera

Starting at Monistrol, the Llobregat hugs the eastern border of the Monsterrat mountains. The mountains of Monsterrat look like a geological mistake. They rise out of nowhere like fingers reaching into the sky. It is no wonder that monks chose these mountains as a refuge for reflection and prayer. These mountains, its virgin of Montserrat and the boys choir that sing for Christian worshipers, have all become symbols of Catalan pride. While most Catalans are devout atheists, they all respect the virgin of Monsterrat, also called la moraneta or the 'dark one' because her statue was miraculously found black. The widespread respect for the holy shine monastery of Monsterrat, even from the non-believing, is the product of the Catalan nationalism espoused by the clerics of Monsterrat. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had a hard time constraining the pride of Catalan clerics, and as a result, Montserrat also became a space for resistance, and where one could proudly speak Catalan.

The trail from Monistrol to Olesa was excellent, and I was surprised to see so much vegetation near the river. There are still dams and abandoned mills in this segment. I tried to visit a natural spring with sulfuric water but the guard who takes care of the abandoned mansion nearby wouldn't let me through. I was in a rush anyway. I had an afternoon appointment with the drinking water plant in Abrera managed by Aigues Ter Llobregat (ATLL). Earlier in the summer I had tried to make an appointment with them, but it wasn't until Roger Lloret made the phone call for me that someone at ATLL agreed to meet with me.


Near Olesa, I found raw sewage being dumped into the Llobregat. It was very smelly.

Only a few meters downstream, I noticed treated sewage released into the river as well. From the map, I could tell that I was close to two waste water treatment plants. Taking a careful look at the center of the river, aided by a bridge, I could see plumes of dark sewage being released into an already cloudy river. It looked as if a pipe with holes ran across the river, and sewage was being evenly released at each hole.

Downstream, in Abrera, I was fortunate to be received by the team at Aigues Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) who are responsible for converting the dirty Llobregat into drinking water. I asked Ramon Arbos, Fernando Valero and Angel Barcelo from ATLL about how their work might be different if the water they received from the Llobregat were as clean as it was in the Baells reservoir. They agreed that cleaner water would imply reduced treatment costs. To filter water from the Llobregat, the ATLL plant uses expensive activated carbon filters in addition to the traditional sand filters. The activated carbon is costly to purchase and maintain. Periodically it must be trucked to Italy where they submit the carbon to high temperatures to remove the unwanted filtered material. Every time the filter goes through this process, the Italian oven burns away a bit of the carbon itself, which needs to be replaced, also at a cost. This raises the question, what if one could show the connection between improved river quality and reduced treatment costs?

Angel Barcelo gave me an excellent tour of the miniature treatment plant used to test new equipment and procedures. I saw the sand filter, carbon filter and chlorination station. Angel explains that the pre-chlorination process was eliminated because the chlorine reacted with the salts to create carcinogenic compounds. He also confirmed that the new desalination plant being contstructed is a direct consequence of the high salt content in the Llobregat. I wonder if this multimillion dollar investment could have been avoided with more active watershed management upstream. The new desalination plant, using 'electrodialisis' technology from General Electric, is highly energy intensive, although less so than 'reverse osmosis' technology planned for the lower Llobregat Delta and the AGBAR plant at Sant Joan Despi. I left the ATLL plant very happy with the tour I was given, and excited about the possibilities of collaborating with those I had met at the water treatment plant.

Day 7: Manresa - Monistrol de Montserrat

Manresa is a medium size Catalan city with over 70,000 residents. The night before I took refuge in the Youth Hostel el Carme managed by the Generalitat. The Cardener river, the primary tributary of the Llobregat, passes through Manresa. Like the Llobregat, the Cardener is polluted by the mining industry and also contains high levels of salt and chloride derivatives. In the morning I had a close look at the Cardener, and it looked even more turbid that the Llobregat. It was disappointing to see the Cardener look in such bad shape, but I had to accept that from here on, the river I was to follow was going to look like a river of mud and guck.

Starting in Manresa I also had to accept more city infrastructure by my side. In addition to roads and highways travelling up the river valley, I was also surrounded by more gas stations, warehouses, automotive workshops and light industry. I was also surprised to find a golf course, and two train lines. Mid morning, I found a worker fixing a river gage on the Cardener near the golf course. He was subcontracted by the Catalan Water Agency to fix or maintain proper functioning of the gages that automatically took readings on river velocity and height, which they used to estimate volume.

Soon after learning about the river gage, I came across the first of the monitoring sites that I had visited with the team of biologists from the University of Barcelona. Only a few meters from this site, I met up with the Llobregat again. At the confluence of these two rivers, I was hoping to see something significant, such as a difference in color between the Llobregat and the Cardener. Unfortunately, I did not see anything of the sort. On the banks of the rivers I noticed that the city hall of Castellgali was cleaning up the bank, maintaining the paths, planting new trees and removing the invasive cane. In most places however, the cane was coming back.

The dearth of trails complicated the entire day, often forcing me to backtrack. In Castellgali, I followed a trail nearly a kilometer only to find it dead end at a water well. Local cities had several wells along the banks of the Llobregat, and today it became clear that many of these wells remain in use. Angel Miralda had showed me wells near the banks of the Llobregat and he told me that the water was not filtered. Chlorine was added before distribution, and off it went. I wondered what the salt content was in these wells downstream of the salt mines.

The only beautiful segment today came at the end. First, before Castellbell i el Vilar there is a beautiful meander followed by an ACA monitoring station and an industrial canal. Then, as one approaches Monistrol de Monsterrat, the peculiar mountains of Monsterrat loomed large above me. Having arrived at Montserrat, I felt that I was in familiar territory, and no longer so far from the Mediterranean.

Day 6: Sallent - Manresa

In the morning, Eloi Escude and Marc Vinyals from Prou Sal! offered to give me a closer look at the largest salt mountain near Sallent that towers 600 meters into the air, occupies 35 hectares, and weighs approximately 40 million tons. We were able to see the salt water collector at the base of the Cogullo mountain. Having heard so much about the salt water collector, I expected a huge pipe. It was disappointing to see a tiny tube less than a foot in diameter. How could this collector transport all the stormwater runoff during rain events? Plus, the whole apparatus seemed to be falling apart, and abandoned. Was it possible that this small basin and collection of pipes was the Llobregat 's only defense from the salt water runoff?

Eloi and Marc explained to me that the mine had recently expanded their salty dump. The expansion was largely contested by city hall who opposed increasing the amount of waste being dumped on the Cogullo mountain. The expansion was also complicated by high voltage electrical towers that traversed the area of the planned expansion. In the end however, not even these existing electrical towers could prevent the mining company from its enlargement, and the towers were moved to circle area of planned enlargement.

That afternoon I hiked toward Manresa in the heat of the day. For the first time in my trip, I felt exhausted. After resting in the shade near Navarcles, I continued south toward Sant Benet del Bages. Before arriving to the restored monestary, I noticed a swimming pool in the back yard of what looked like a luxery hotel. Jumping in was tempting, but I resisted. The trail took me away from the Monestary, and I was tempted to make a sharp right turn up the hill and skip the short visit. But instead I walked down the closer to the monestary, and noticed more modern buildings in the vicinity. Then I saw a familiar face that dominats the local news: Joaquim Nadal, the Catalan Minister of Urban Planning and Infrastructure. I was able to explain the objective of my research to the Minister and I also pressed him on the issue of the salt contamination of the Llobregat. He was aware of the severity of the situation.

Day 5: Navas - Sallent

On Sunday we continued down the well marked trail that connected the industrial colonies of the Llobregat. The town of Navas marked the first town of the comarca Bages, considered to be core of central Catalonia. Accompanied again by Angel Miralda, his wife and a friend, Hector and I had the morning to ask more questions about the river, its users, and history. Mid morning, near Balsareny, we encountered one of the Llobregat's oldest landmarks, the Sequia dels Manresans. This dam was originally built in the XIVth century by the city of Manresa to provide drinking water and irrigation. The city requested permission from king Pere III the cerimonious to divert water from the Llobregat and transport it 26 kilometers to Manresa. This medieval infrastructure include 30 aqueducts, and the canal from the Llobregat to Manresa only looses 10 meters in elevation despite traversing uneven terrain.

Later that afternoon, we passed the last of the well known industrial colonies, and said goodbye to our local guides. Discovering the history of the industrial colonies was a highlight of the trip thus far. In one old picture of the colony Viladomiu Nou, I noticed that the majestic home of the land owner and the factory was surrounded by bearen land. Not a single tree or bush was in sight. I was told that this was because of firewood collection. Whatever the cause, this picture from 1920 reminded me that restoration is not necessarily going back to the past, and that any restoration effort today of the Llobregat should consider that the area has already suffered considerable ecological alteration whose impacts are likely to remain.

It is well known that salt, NaCl, the same salt we put our our salad, is the most problematic contaminant in the Llobregat. The private water company Aigues de Barcelona (AGBAR) first to remediate the salty Llobregat in 1931 by creating a special commission to study the problem. Only six years earlier, in 1925, mining companies located upstream near Cardona and Sallent had begun extracting minerals from the earth and depositing their waste near the Llobregat or the Cardener river- its main tributary. The mines mostly sought potassium - a valuable mineral for producing fertilizers and explosives. The profitabitity of these mining activities allowed locals to overlook the environmental problems caused by the salt water runoff, especially during storm events, that frequently injected the Llobregat and Cardener with salty water.

In Vilafruns, I was able to witness the severity of the salt runoff. Only a few meters from the main stem of the Llobregat, a considerably large mountain of salt residue piled up into the sky. The base of the mountain was surrounded by a white gully filled with salt. As far as I could tell, this salt water drained into the groundwater, and probably directly into the Llobregat. I had been told that a special pipe had been build to channel the salty water to Mediterranean, but this work of remediation was not visible in Vilafruns. To be honest, I as astounded with what I saw.

In the afternoon, I met with Josep Ribera from the organization Prou Sal! He invited me to the evening meeting where I met the community organizers who have raised awareness about the issue. I learned that city wells have been contaminated by the salt water runoff, forcing the town of Sallent to invest millions in to water potabilization technology. The same can be said downstream at the water treatment plant in Abrera and Sant Joan Despi, where the newest desalinization and filtration technology is being installed in a freshwater river to remove salts and other contaminants from Barcelona's drinking water.

Another group working on the same issue, Montsalat, has an excellent webpage with more information about the historical grievances associated with the salt contamination caused by the mines.

Day 4: Gironella - l'Ametlla de Merola

Here I began the industrial section of the Llobregat. In the late nineteenth century, the river provided energy for the textile factories that drove the industrial revolution in Catalonia. Wealthy factory owners built their empires from scratch. First however, they needed a strategic segment along the river that maximized vertical drop. The higher the drop, the more kinetic energy they could capture from the Llobregat to power their mills. But while the energy they captured from the river was critical, they also needed old fashion human labor as well. And since these factories were being built along the shores of the Llobregat where few towns existed, the factory owners decided to build housing for the factory workers. This way, workers lived next to the factory, and could bring their family with them to the place of their new employment. And with the families, came the need for schools, entertainment and of course the church. The factory owners provided these services, and created small enclaves where the workers lives revolved entirely around the labor and services near the factory. Each colony was given the name of its owner, and with it, new, modern and mini-industrial societies were born, complete with cafe's, the church, and theatre.

The towns along the Llobregat have organized into a tourism board to promote the restoration of the colonies. The headquarters of the Concorci pel Parc Fluvial de les Colonies del Llobregat is located at la Torre de l'Amo at Viladomiu Nou. Neus Santamaria gave us an excellent tour of the home of the factory owner.

In the afternoon, we met up with Angel Miralda, who grew up in the colony of l'Ametlla de Merola. We met in Puig-reig and together, we walked south passing the colonies of Cal Marcal, Cal Vidal, and Cal Riera. Angel participated in an MIT-Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya study on the Llobregat. I had seen the study cited but had not seen a printed copy until Neus showed me one at the Concorci. I would like to obtain a copy because it was written by a team of urban planners with the intent of promoting the corridor of industrial colonies along the Llobregat. Oriol Nel.lo first told me about this study in January 2008, and I must admit that that conversation first sparked my interest in studying the Llobregat at all. I hope to contact both the Catalan and American coordinators of this project to gain more insight on this part of the Llobregat from a planning perspective.

Day 3: La Nou de Bergueda - Gironella

Leaving La Nou I realized that this would be my last day in the mountains. A neighbor confirms that the small town of La Nou dumps its untreated sewage into a mountain stream, that flows into the Baells reservoir. A sewage treatment plant is being designed for La Nou, but for the time being, residents give daily doses of waste to the river, as they have done for centuries. As a visitor in La Nou, I too have contributed to the organic matter and nutrient load of the Llobregat.

With this thought in mind, I began a steep descent toward the Baells Reservoir. Built in 1975, the Baells Reservoir was one of the last grand hydroelectric projects of the Franco dictatorship. The dam regulates flows to prevent flooding, stores water for the Barcelona metropolitan area and produces electrical power. The heavy rains in May 2008 have filled the reservoir to 98% capacity, and few remember seeing it so full.



Despite my unannounced visit, Ricard Sosa, Lluis Canals and Rafael Fernandez from the Catalan Water Agency provided me with a fantastic explanation of the dam's operation and an improvised tour. Ricard and Rafael were both part of the original team of dam builders who have stayed on as part of the maintenance team. Every day they manually check geological gages to ensure structural stability. Having worked at the dam for over 30 years, they have gained intimate knowledge of its operation. Fortunately, they are passing on their knowledge to younger generations. At the time of my visit, they were releasing 3 cubic meters per second. They showed me a chart that showed how much power they were generating given the volume released and the pressure (reservoir capacity) at which the water was released. A private firm operates the hydroelectric generator, but the Catalan Water Agency decides how much is released. The ACA team collects abundant data that can be helpful for understanding the Llobregat system.


Rafael and Lluis take me to the bottom of the dam in an old elevator. The tunnel at the bottom was damp, and filled with puddles -- from condesation they said -- although I couldn't help but think about the volume of water above our heads and to the left.

They hydroelectric generator was built several years after the dam, and approximately 750 m. downstream. As a result, the Llobregat essentially disappears into a pipe in this segment. Rafael and Lluis tell me that they have scrambled down the rocks that lead to the second birth of the Llobregat at the hydroelectric generator. It had been a while since they had hiked this segment, but since they assured me that it wasn't dangerous, I gave it a try. While it was physically possible to go through the brush, without a machete, my pace slowed to a crawl. And literally, I crawled under the brush. On three ocassions I had to take off my pack, throw it over a bush or down a rock, and then scramble without the weight. When the brush became so thick that I couldn't pass, I crossed what should have been the Llobregat, but instead was a field of mud with cane overgrowth. When my boots sunk into the mud I walked faster. Finally, I reached the old train trail on the left bank. The path felt like a highway. Crossing this trecherous segment had the reward of seeing the Llobregat where few have seen it. The next 4 kilometers had the most beautiful views of the 10 day trip.

After an hour I came across the bridge and monestary of Pedret. Residents from Berga come to swim here. I was told that this is a relatively clean part of the Llobregat, and probably my only chance to swim in it. It was hot, and a cool dip was enticing, but I was alone, and I already had dealt with enough adventure for the day.

Near Pedret, fishers from Berga invite me to have coffee, whisky and donuts (I declined the first two but accepted the later). They were scheduled to repopulate the river with truita. They also tell me that fishers pay considerable fees to fish, both to the association and to the Catalan Government.

After eating donuts with the fishers I move on. The trial is flat and agreeable, ideal for bikes. I pass three tunnels that were originally built for the trains that transported coal and and other mining minerals from the higher segments of the watershed. The construction of the Baells dam closed the rail line for good.

At about 4.30 in the afternoon, I reached another major transition point in the trip just before arriving to Cal Rosal. First, the water quality declined significantly as I passed the point where Berga released its (treated) wastewater. I also reached my first old textile factory, marking the beginning of an entirely new chapter of my journey. Here the river also crawls beneath the first of many freeway bridges. Finally, I was also fortunate to meet up with my friend Hector Oliva who offered to join me for the weekend. It was great to see a familiar face, and have someone with whom to share the adventure.

Passing Cal Rosal, we set out for the town of Gironella where we would spend the night. Walking onto the left bank of the Llobregat, it was clear that we had left the mountains and the terrain opened up. For the first time in several days, my view was unobstructed by mountains.





As a final surprise, we found two kids catching freshwater crabs. I had read that the native species of crab had been in decline, and that an invasive species, known as the American crab was taking its place. I asked the kids if they had seen different species, but as far as they knew, they all looked the same. The rock formations here were also very interesting. The rock was smooth, and undulated like waves.

By the end of the day I was tired. It was my longest trek yet, at 30 km. for the day.

Day 2: La Poble - La Nou del Bergueda

Upon learning that there wasn't any trail that accompanied the river between La Poble and Berga, and following an unpleasant experience blazing my own trail the day before, I chose to follow a marked trail that would take me across the Collaras mountains and diagonally southwest to catch up with the Llobregat near the Baells reservoir near la Nou de Bergueda. Local hikers estimated a 6-7 hour trek, although no one I spoke with had ever done it before. The trail took me up and down two valleys, into the heartland of the Catalan Pyrenees. The trail was well marked and well kept through a forests that appeared to be in equally good shape. Flowers and vegetation were everywhere. After a morning gaining altitude, I caught a glimpse of the Pedraforca mountain, and the Cadi-Moixaro range. Later in the afternoon when I found a small pension at la Nou I was told that one of the few homes that I passed was owned by two brothers who had refused to connect to the electrical grid.

Day 1: Castellar d'en Hug to La Poble de Llillet

The Llobregat river springs to life between a few boulders below the town of Castellar d'en Hug, only a few miles south of the Spanish-French border in the Pyrenees Mountains. These springs have become a tourist attraction for thousands of visitors each year. The public water company Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL), and the local city hall have invested in giving visitors a good impression. Using signs and a multimedia film called "El Llobregat: Un riu amic" (The Llobregat: A friendly river), they sell the idea that the river is well managed. If nothing else, the positive spin fed to visitors forces them to think more carefully about what sort of river they see today, and perhaps what type of Llobregat they would like to live with in the future.

Sara joined me on the first afternoon of my trip. The restaurant owners of Castellar d'en Hug told us that an abandoned trail would take us to La Poble, although it was so grown over that we lost the trail after only a few minutes. We descended into another valley where we found small tributary of the Llobregat that was floored with red soils. Without any trail to follow, it was easier jump from rock to rock down the middle of the stream than to walk along the bank.

The water was clear and beautiful. This despite being told by town residents that the waste water treatment plant of Castellar de n'Hug is located above the birth of the Llobregat. It was unclear why the town chose to pump water uphill to the waste water treatment plant, only to divert it downhill, around, I assume, the birth of the Llobregat. There is an outside chance that the wastewater is put into a pipe that feeds an hydroplant at the former cement factory at the Clot del Moro. Still, the flows of waste water, even at the birth of the Llobregat, remained a mystery.

Only a few kilometers below the river's birth, there is an abaondoned cement factory that has now been transformed into a cement museum. The old factory reminds me of the heavy industry that I will see along the entire trip.

Exploring the Llobregat River

Before selecting a specific PhD research question I wanted to get to know my area of study. What better way than to hike the length of the Llobregat River from its birth in the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea? Funded in part by the Tinker Foundation at the UI Center for Latin American Studies, I was able to travel to Barcelona and prepare a 10 day backpacking trip down the Llobregat River. First I arranged meetings with local experts along the route. Then I set off, with not much more than a digital camera, a notebook, energy bars, a few change of clothes and a brand new GPS. The trip was scheduled for July 23-August 1st.

What is the water quality of this river? Look under a rock

Last week I helped collect water quality samples in the Llobregat watershed with biologists Mia Morante, Pau Fortuño and Nuria Sanchez from the University of Barcelona. We were looking for macroinvertebrates that live under rocks and are useful for estimating water quality. Biologists have been collecting, classifying and counting these critters since 1994 and dumping them in a comprehensive database called ECOBILL. This data set provides nearly 15 years of information useful for extacting trend analysis. It occurred to me that this data set might uncover new information if it were meshed with another data set in the watershed, such as land cover change, or investments in wastewater treatment plants.

The day long trip introduced me to lesser known parts of the Llobregat watershed. I was also very lucky to have Mia, Pau and Nuria who answered my endless questions. We started the day in the more industrial section of the Llobregat where the river smelt bad. Not surprisingly, as we moved upstream the water became clearer and more species of macroinvertebrates revealed themselves under the rocks.

Collecting data to confrim that the Llobregat is dirty, reminded me that my thesis cannot simply restate the obvious. Yes, there is a lot of crud in the river. But are there measures that can result in tangible or measureable improvements in water quality? How do river managers deal with daily or seasonal variability? What about all the relatively new wastewater treatment plants? These are the pride of the local water agency because they dump treated water into the river, and yet when it rains, there are severe combined sewer overflows. Looking into the future, what is beyond centralized waste water treatment? Decentralized treatment? Decentralized water re-use? Should our goal be to build more, bigger treatment plants, or reframe the entire process to something totally different?

Civil Society Speaks Against the Ebro Interbasin Transfers

Tonight I heard Manolo Tomas, leader of the Platform in defense of the Ebro River, discuss the cancellation of inter basin water transfer from the Ebro to the Barcelona Metropolitan region. Hard rain fell on Catalonia this May 2008. The water was sorely needed as the region was facing one of the worst droughts in 70 years. The reservoir network jumped from 20% to 50% capacity in hardly a mont. And so this week the government cancelled plans to transfer water from the Ebro to Barcelona. The Platformin Defense of the Ebro led the charge against the infrastructure project, and they very pleased that no more water will be removed from the Ebro.

About 7 years ago, when another water transfer project threatened to remove water from the Ebro, the Platform successfully campaigned against and defeated the proposal to transfer water to the Levante coast of Spain. The group has been successful in combining environmental, agricultural and local interests. They have admirably prevented private interests from taken water to lubricate their business machines. Farmers and real estate speculators were the most likely benefactors of new water resources to formerly dry lands.

There was one point where I disagreed with Mr. Tomas: I don't believe in the conspiracy theory that claims the drought was manipulated to create a crisis that would allow for the passage of inter-basin connections. There is also a lot of rhetoric. It is unclear if the Platform is really for sustainble management or simply the status quo. What influence to current irrigation communities have in the platform? Are they willing to invest in water saving technologies? 80% of Spain's water is destined to agriculture, and farmers have benefited from highly subsidized water. Agricultural runoff transports pesticides, fertilizers and nutrients that strangle ecosystems. Is the platform in defense of the Ebro taking on these issues to restore the Ebro? My impression is that economic interests, especially agricultural interests, are behind the Platform, and yet they use the environmental discourse to gain more widespread support.

If this were not the case, we would be hearing much stronger ecological arguments and criticism of the irrigation community. Their silence on these issues speaks volumes.

Comparative Study on Water Management: Spain and California

Last week, Harvard's Widener Library sent me "La gestión del agua en España y California" by Pedro Arrojo and José Manuel Naredo (1997). The book has restored my faith in comparative studies, which often fall flat because they lack clear justification or piercing conclusions. Therfore I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pedro Arrojo successfully highlights water management practices in California that may be useful for water managers in Spain. For example, he points out that Californians have protected minimum instream flows for decades, they collect more granular data on water use, and have created an innovative water banking program to redistribute water rights.

Arrojo begins with the hard numbers and makes a case that California and Spain have a remarkably similar storage capacity and consumption patterns.

Without glorifying California's water policy, Arrojo points out that Spain lags in critical areas. At the time of his writing, Spain hardly discussed minimum instream flow protection, whereas Californians made considerable progress in protecting the minimum flows necessary to sustain the ecological integrity of the Sacramento Delta. These conclusions provide hope that significant improvements and efficiencies remain to be made within Spain's water management system.

And while Arrojo convices his reader that California's protection of minimum instream flow is the way of the future, he does not satisfactorily explain what conviced policy makers that this was good policy in the first place, or how this idea matured.

His chapter on groundwater revealed how little is known about aquifer abstraction. Private wells extract unknown volumes from aquifers. Of course, groundwater is a common resource, but it occured to me that groundwater does not have managment institutions to govern the commons as do other resources such as forests or fisheries. Are watershed committee's the response to this institutional deficiency? But don't groundwater users see themselves as in a different category than surface water users? How does watershed planning balance the needs of these two users? And can one manage the commons across a watershed if the form of extraction is so vastly different? While hydrological models can integrate ground water and surface water flows, how do management institutions facilitate this integration?

Finally, the book is now 11 years old, and some of the data is starting to become outdated. In Spain, much has changed since the rise and fall of the National Hydrologic Plan. Catalonia is in a drought, and improvements in desalination technology has changed the economic calculus. It may be time for a revision of his book and a reflection on some of the recommendations made. If Dr. Pedro Arrojo is looking for someone to help him update his book... tell me where I need to send my CV.