A mountain in the Bages region (right in the middle of Catalonia and located in the province of Barcelona) is eighty meters high. It is the spoil heap created from the residues of mining in the Sallent salt mine. At the moment it contains 38.5 million tonnes of sodium chloride and every day is growing (watch video about the impact).
The Iberpotash company invests million of euros to maintain the salt deposit and has carried out a project to contain the spoil heap, such as an impermeable canal of approximately three kilometres around the periphery to collect dissolved salt. Next year they will close the potassium mines of Sallent and they will have to consider what to do with the mountain of sodium chloride that has accumulated during all the years of exploitation. This represents a huge amount of a highly valuable commercial resource.”We have to stop thinking of this salt as waste”
On the other hand, the members of the pressure group “Prou Sal” (Stop Salt) are worried about the pollution that the mountain produces. For them the visual impact is secondary. The Vilafruns salt spoil heap in the area of Balsareny was made impermeable and replanted, which has reduced the salinity of the water. But a report concludes that “Sallent also needs an environmental plan to offset the impacts caused by mining and that the Phoenix Plan does not guarantee this”.
El Medi Ambient is a daily program run by Xavier Duran on the information services of TV3, one of the channels of the Televisiâ⥠de Catalunya. It aims to provide an informative but rigurous overview of the environmental issues to the broad audience introducing programs not only about natural areas, biodiversity and remains but also innovation, economy, welfare and health, always trying to reflect various opinions.
More info: El Medi Ambient
Produced by: TV3
Language: Catalan, English subtitles
Year: 2013
Region: Catalonia
