Denitrification station

The project

In Menorca, the urban water supply comes entirely from the aquifer. However, the season of lowest water extraction coincides with that of maximum consumption since the main tourist period occurs in the driest time of the year.

In addition, during recent years it has been noted that most of the wells in the municipality of Mahon contain high nitrate levels and, consequently, the water distributed by the network slightly exceeds the legal limit of 50 mg/l established by RD 140/2003 on health criteria regarding the quality of water for human consumption.

Work is being carried out to ensure both the quantity and the quality of the urban water supply in the municipality. To do so, different water treatment options have been considered taking into account various technical, economic and environmental aspects. Out of all of the analysed options, biological denitrification seems to be the most favourable alternative.

Therefore, the project involves the installation of a denitrification station (including the drafting of the project and the completion of the necessary work to put it into operation) which would be located at the Malbúger area plant, and would initially serve the Malbúger area (with estimated volumes of between 800 m³ and 1000 m³ per day), although it could be connected to the rest of the municipality's networks. With this station, it would be possible to significantly reduce the nitrate concentration in the aquifer water making it suitable for consumption.