Notable case, Flix, Catalunya (Tarragona), Spain
Flix reservoir (Ebro river)
Embassament de Flix
For more than a century a chlor-alkali factory discharged its residues into the Ebro at the Flix meander: nearly a million cubic metres of sludge with mercury, organochlorines and radionuclides.
At a glance
- Status
- Remediation under way
- Activity
- since 1897
- Media
- sediment, surface water, living organisms
- Kind of site
- chemical works, power plant
- Area. The sludge deposit reached about 150 m into the river along 1,100 m of the factory wall.
Contaminants
Status
Remediation under way
The Acuamed project, awarded to FCC in 2008 and started in 2011, planned to extract about 960,000 m³ of sludge for an investment of some 200 million euros, 70% from the EU Cohesion Fund. We did not open a source confirming the completion date.
Story
The electrochemical plant at Flix, now owned by Ercros (formerly Erkimia), has been operating since 1897. Residues were discharged straight into the river; after the dam was built they piled up on the bank in front of the factory. The Spanish Wikipedia entry speaks of 700,000 m³ of hazardous waste and recalls that a court established polluting discharges between 1988 and 1993.
The contaminants fall into three groups: organochlorines, heavy metals (mercury above all) and radionuclides.
The clean-up consists of 'ecological' dredging of the sludge, followed by wet sorting, dewatering, water treatment and disposal in a dedicated landfill 8 km away. A parallel land restitution plan is worth 57 million euros, 36 from the state and 21 from the Catalan government.
Timeline
- 1897The chlor-alkali plant starts up.
- 2008Acuamed awards the decontamination project to FCC.
- 2011Work begins.
Remediation
- 2011dredging and landfillDredging of the sludge, treatment and disposal in a controlled landfill.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Azolla carolinianaCarolina mosquito fernEvidence: laboratory
Fungi
- Rhodotorula taiwanensisRadionuclides (mixed)Evidence: laboratory
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Cladosporium sphaerospermumRadionuclides (mixed)Evidence: laboratory
- Boletus edulisKing bolete, porciniEvidence: survey of wild specimens
Nearby
Sources
- Contaminated sludge cleanup begins on Spain's Ebro river to reverse toxic legacy, WaterWorld, 2013
- Embalse de Flix, Wikipedia (es), 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.