[MGSA-L] Kifissos River is polluting the Saronic Gulf

Sat Mar 17 11:58:59 PDT 2007

Kifissos River is polluting the Saronic Gulf

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_90709_17/03/2007_81335
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_91105_17/03/2007_81334
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_91635_17/03/2007_81333
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_91635_17/03/2007_81332

Heavy metals such as chromium, lead, nickel, iron from industrial
waste are flowing into the sea and spreading as far as Perama

By Spyros Karalis - Kathimerini

The waters of the Kifissos River that flows through Athens to the
Saronic Gulf bring with them large quantities of chromium, nickel and
iron, spreading them along the section of coast from the Faliron Delta
to Perama.

These toxic heavy metals have been found in concentrations far above
the set limits and threaten the health of swimmers at the Votsalakia
and Freattyda beaches in Piraeus.

According to a postgraduate dissertation by chemical engineer
Apostolos Moustakis at Piraeus University's Shipping Studies
Department, some sections of the river, particularly near the Aghias
Annis bridge, have average levels of chromium that are 350 percent
over the permissible limit. But scientists have found concentrations
as high as 1,600 percent more than the limit.

Change for worse

At the river mouth chromium levels were 220 percent over the limit,
while lead levels surpassed it by 120 percent and nickel by up to 50
percent.

The survey, carried out in two phases (the first in 1999-2003 and the
second in 2005 after the river was covered by a highway), shows that
covering the river with asphalt and concrete did not protect the
river, as authorities claimed it would. Instead, the construction has
worsened it. Chromium levels have increased by 30 percent since the
section of the road was covered.

"Covering the Kifissos River has had the opposite effect to what was
expected despite the deindustrialization of the southern districts and
the removal of a large number of smaller factories," said Moustakis.

New problems

"Covering the Kifissos to build the extension of the
Athens-Thessaloniki highway appears to have created new problems.
Factories that used to dispose of their waste in the river have
continued to do so and to an even greater degree; there are no checks
on them because of the difficulty of access to the area. That is clear
from the large increases in the concentrations of chromium since 2004
compared to 1999-2003, both at the Aghias Annis bridge and at Neo
Faliron," he added.

The presence of these heavy metals in the Kifissos is due to
industrial waste from tanneries and perhaps paint and cement factories
in the open section of the river, as well as illegally constructed
waste disposal pipes in the southern section.

Waste from the Kifissos River accounts for 62 percent of the pollution
in the sea, compared to 38 percent from the waste treatment plant on
the islet of Psyttaleia just off the coast at Perama.

"The river can only be saved if there is a new policy to protect it
and by extension the marine environment, and if all parameters are
monitored," said Vassilis Tselentis, an associate professor at Piraeus
University's Marine Science Laboratory.

Not a drain

"There needs to be an immediate change in the mentality that the
Kifissos is nothing more than a drain; there has to be an immediate
ban on channeling industrial waste into it, and continual policing of
its course."
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Heavy metals such as chromium, lead, nickel, iron from industrial
waste are flowing into the sea and spreading as far as Perama

By Spyros Karalis - Kathimerini