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.