It will be “months” that pass until the environmental damage caused by the rupture of a sewage collector has cleared. The rupture is throwing thousands of liters of sewage into the Natural Protected Area of Estero El Salado, and its adjoining beaches in Puerto Vallarta.
Martín Pérez Peña, a teacher in Marine Ecology at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), and member of the Estero’s Scientific Committee, stressed that sewage still arriving. “It’s like eight soccer fields a meter deep that are pouring into the water every day.”
The UdeG reported that the damage to the fauna is real, because the chemicals in the wastewater (detergents, for example) kill oxygen.
“We still do not know how much of the compounds or elements that can be toxic are going to remain in sediments (…). Once they stop the water from pouring in the estuary it will be a good time for the ecosystem to clean up the excess organic matter, ” he said.
