Portal de San Pedro del Pinatar
www.portaldesanpedrodelpinatar.com
The Director General of the Natural Environment, Consuelo Rosauro, attended this morning at the beginning of the salt harvesting works that are carried out in the Regional Park of Las Salinas and Arenales de San Pedro and estimated that this year will reach about 100,000 tons.
Rosauro emphasized how "the human saline activity has contributed to configure the landscape and ecological plots that is the paradise for birds and other species that is this natural space and its compatibility with a socio-economic activity."
With the conclusion of the summer begins the so-called salt harvest.
With the sun and ingenuity and technology developed by man, the waters of the Mar Menor become tons of salt.
60 percent of this mineral is sold in 25 kg bags for different industries, such as food;
25 percent in packs of one or two kilos for sale in stores and the rest is marketed in the so-called 'big bags' of thousand kilos, although the sale of this format is being reduced in favor of the others.
The director of Medio Natural stressed that "the Salinas of San Pedro del Pinatar are one of the most harmonious expressions of human intervention on the coast, a living example of resource use, which results in ecosystems capable of sustaining a high diversity and , at the same time, maintain the capacity to generate services of great economic importance ".
Productive process
The essence of the salt process consists in the progressive evaporation of water from the Mar Menor, increasing the concentration in seawater salts stored in shallow ponds, until reaching the gradient that causes the precipitation of the fraction of sodium chloride whose collection has begun today .
The evaporation process is favored by the effect of the winds, which act by removing the water vapor that rises on the rafts.
The operation of the Salinas de San Pedro is simple, the water is pumped from the Mar Menor to two circuits of different route, where it circulates along a series of rafts communicated with each other by gates.
In the first storage ponds the decantation of the impurities in the form of solid particles that can contain the water, until reaching a concentration of 70-80 grams of salt per liter.
As the concentration continues to increase, calcium sulphate begins to precipitate, increasing the concentration until reaching 300-325 grams of salt per liter of water, before passing to the next group of rafts, which is called the 'header concentrator'.
The 'header concentrators' are controlled exhaustively, since they are the ones in charge of feeding with saturated brines to the denominated 'crystallizers'.
This last group of rafts occupies a smaller extent, since the initial volume of water has been greatly reduced, but they are the most important because they precipitate sodium chloride, obtaining crusts of salt between seven and almost fourteen centimeters thick.
To extract the salt the 'crystallizer' is emptied by channels.
The precipitated sodium chloride forms a layer of determined thickness, is extracted with an excavator that breaks the layer of salt and a few shovels to pile it up to drain the water.
The extracted salt is brought to the washing stage, in which adhered impurities are removed.
After the washing goes to a group of centrifuges to remove water content and reduce the percentage of moisture and the salt of the entire crop is stored in a pile (main stock).
Depending on their use, the salts harvested usually undergo a washing process to remove impurities or can be shipped as is.
Source: CARM
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