Just days before the first anniversary of the reopening of Playa Jardín in Puerto de la Cruz, the Stop Marine Dumping Platform has once again brought to public attention the condition of the sanitation infrastructure related to one of the most serious environmental incidents recorded in the municipality. The beach was reopened for bathing on June 17, 2025, after nearly a year of closure due to high levels of faecal contamination detected in its waters. A year later, with the coast now open to the public, the group believes there are still questions about the progress of the planned works and whether a definitive solution to the dumping issue is truly guaranteed.
An Ineffective Treatment Plant
According to the platform, the vast majority of structural actions needed to ensure a response are either pending or significantly delayed, lacking transparency in the process. Key among these are the tertiary treatment at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (EDAR), the expansion of the regional treatment facility, the rehabilitation of the Punta Brava submarine outfall, auxiliary infiltration wells, the regulation of pumping stations (EBAR), and the comprehensive improvement of the sewer network in the area. Furthermore, the association calls for greater transparency regarding water quality controls and the actual functioning of some of these infrastructures. “There is a huge difference between resolving an emergency and addressing the root problem,” the entity emphasises.
The Cabildo of Tenerife and BALTEN, the public body responsible for agricultural irrigation water supply, initiated the implementation of a tertiary treatment in the regional EDAR, an infrastructure that has been planned since the plant’s construction in the 1990s and was only realised in 2025. Tertiary treatment is an additional stage designed to further enhance the quality of already treated water and enable its reuse. In this case, the goal is to channel water towards the La Cruz Santa reservoir to supply crops in Los Realejos and the rest of the valley.
The conflict arises as, despite the system being installed by 2025, the Cabildo announced that it would start partial operations in May and be fully operational by June. However, BALTEN’s own technical documentation shows that the operation was still in testing and that the project has faced an accumulation of deadline extensions. Initially, completion was set for June 1, 2025, then extended to October 1 of that year, and subsequently to March 1, 2026, mainly due to delays in the delivery of medium-voltage cells.
According to the report, the pumping to Cruz Santa began testing on June 2 last year and the first sustained pumping did not occur until June 10, still part of an ongoing startup phase. Although it reports that 93,008 cubic metres have been pumped to the reservoir, the platform questions whether the stated goal can be deemed met while the network is still in testing and not fully operational.
To date, official data from the Isle of Primary Sector indicates that this system only permits the treatment of around 7,000 cubic metres daily. This accounts for merely one-third of the total inflow received by the treatment plant (estimated at around 20,000 m³ per day). Consequently, the remaining 13,000 cubic metres per day are left without the necessary tertiary treatment. As it does not meet the quality standards required by law for agricultural irrigation, this vast volume of water cannot be harnessed for farming and ends up being wasted by being discharged into the sea.
Almost €21 Million Without Visible Progress
As for the expansion of the regional EDAR, the Cabildo claims that the work, involving an investment of nearly €21 million, has already commenced following the signing of the replanning act roughly a month ago. However, there is no evidence of earth movement or signs of any actual work beginning on site.
Initially presented as an urgent project, it has since been processed through ordinary channels, extending its execution timeline to 37 months, and consequently pushing back its completion to at least 2028. The group argues that this discrepancy between administrative timelines and reality showcases a hidden paralysis, warning that “the expansion may be inadequate from its design to respond to the anticipated growth across all municipalities in the valley.”
To complicate matters, the Tenerife Insular Water Council published on Friday, June 12, in the Official Bulletin of the Province the opening of a new public information and consultation process within the Ordinary Environmental Impact Assessment of the upcoming expansion of the EDAR in the Valle de La Orotava. The agency argues that the inclusion of new technical documentation makes it necessary to resubmit part of the file for consultation, highlighting that the project is still caught up in its administrative and environmental phase.
Pending Works Along the Coast
On another note, the replacement of the Punta Brava submarine outfall has yet to commence, despite it being awarded a year ago with a 16-month execution timeline, which now presents a further indication of inaction. Stop Dumping insists that “this is a priority action to ensure the environmental safety of the final discharge and protect the coastline,” yet they state that “no work is being carried out on the outfall” and that, a year later, “the project remains stalled.”
The Cabildo asserts that the project has been awarded to Ferrovial, with auxiliary work worth over a million euros for infiltration wells already completed; however, direct intervention has not started due to a lack of a window of good weather in an area particularly challenging for underwater works. Meanwhile, the reality is that the key infrastructure to resolve the discharge issue remains unrealised.
Infrastructure Without Response
Compounding the issue, no public information exists regarding the works related to the auxiliary infiltration wells, which are intended to temporarily divert flows of wastewater or partially treated water into the subsurface, aiming to reduce discharges to the sea. Neighbours report not knowing “crucial aspects such as design, specific purpose, capacity, environmental controls or risk assessment.”
Furthermore, the current status of the EBAR facilities at El Caletón, Playa Chica and Playa Jardín, which are responsible for pumping wastewater to the treatment plant, remains unknown. Between 2023 and 2025, various sanctioning files from the Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment, the Directorate General for Public Health, and the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office revealed that these stations and their emergency relief systems were operating irregularly. Technical reports from these agencies confirmed that the installations lacked the necessary environmental authorisations and were not following the required legalisation procedures, leading to situations where, when pumping systems collapsed, they discharged untreated wastewater into the sea without the mandatory permissions stipulated by the Coastal Law.
Additionally, there is still no indication of the drafting of the project to fully refurbish the old Punta Brava sewer system. Although the Cabildo provided a grant of nearly one million euros for the works, the absence of this administrative step hinders the ability to tender the project. This delay not only perpetuates the leakage of contaminated water into the sea but also jeopardises the funding received, which could be lost if not justified in time.
Questions Over System Response and Clarity
While the Town Hall continues to remain silent on the EBAR facilities, sewerage system, and infiltration wells, Stop Dumping asserts that unfulfilled promises are accumulating in Punta Brava. The Cabildo, for its part, insists on “asserting and demonstrating that water quality is excellent, both for bathing and for regeneration.”
“The fact that analyses fall within legal parameters does not mean that all problems have been resolved. While tertiary treatment is not operating at full capacity, a significant portion continues to depend on disinfection through sodium hypochlorite,” the platform responds. The application of chlorine to wastewater with high organic loads can promote the formation of disinfection byproducts, including trihalomethanes and other organohalogen compounds, which are potentially carcinogenic and highly toxic substances that pose a long-term risk to the health of bathers and cause a severe ecological impact.
The reopening of Playa Jardín cannot be deemed a closed solution while key infrastructures remain incomplete, delayed, or lacking the necessary transparency. The Stop Marine Dumping Platform holds that, while some small progress has been made, doubts remain regarding the entirety of the sanitation and purification system, as well as the actual quality of the water and its potential byproducts. Therefore, it demands public information, updates on projects, and a comprehensive and definitive response that goes beyond merely permitting bathing and ensures the effective protection of the coastline while permanently resolving a problem that, they warn, “is still not resolved.”
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