EIR completed for Foix desalination plant in Spain

The environmental impact report for the Foix desalination project in the Catalunya province of Spain has been completed and submitted to the supervisory committee.

A review of the report is expected in November.

Foix is one of two new Catalunyan desalination plants moving forward following the opening of the 200,000 m³/d Llobregat seawater reverse-osmosis plant in Barcelona in July 2009. According to Aiguës del Ter Llobregat, the utility operating the Llobregat plant, the project design for further expansion of desalination at Tordera/Blanes will be completed in November 2009.

Together Foix and Tordera will add another 200,000 m³/d to Catalunya’s water supply. However, as D&WR discovered on a recent visit to Barcelona, only one train of the ten at the € 230 million Llobregat plant, built by Degrémont and DRACE Medioambiente, has so far been used, due to lack of demand. In Catalunya, desalination is very much seen as insurance against drought.