Soils
As the owners and ultimate managers of the environmental state of the port area, the Port also aims to ensure the good state of the soil and groundwater. For this reason, it promotes pollution prevention and monitors the situation, both in concession and non-concession areas. And, if necessary, it carries out remediation actions.
Prevent and act
Fruit of the collaboration between the Port Authority and the Waste Agency of Catalonia, in 2006 the Guide for the prevention of soil contamination from potentially polluting activities in the Port of Barcelona was approved. This tool establishes the basic guidelines that port activities must follow to prevent and reduce the risk of soil and groundwater contamination in the area of the port's public domain.
Responsibility of the concessions
At the beginning and end of the concession period, all the concessions must characterise the soil and groundwater of their plots to ensure that there is no contamination.
In case of contamination, the concession itself must assume the tasks of decontaminating soil and groundwater.
Status of proceedings
The Port's first goal is to prevent, but sometimes it is necessary to act. Up to the year 2020, interventions for soil or groundwater characterisation were carried out in more than thirty sites and remediation in more than a dozen of them.
Database of contaminated soils
Since 2020, the port has had a database with information on soil and groundwater contamination from more than 600 survey points and more than 1,000 records (the same point may have more than one record).
Advantages of the tool
The database allows the concession spaces to be quickly linked to the pollution values of the soil to anticipate in time whether or not it is necessary to act to characterise or remediate a plot.
Likewise, the database provides information on the level of background contamination and the values for some singular contaminants that are found in various locations.
The Port of Barcelona is making progress towards introducing cleaner fuels for ships
