The Río Guadalfeo ran black and sweet on Thursday as it emptied into the sea because there had been an accidental discharge of molasses up in the Ron Montero factory in Lobres.

This spillage was caputured on a mobile-phone video by a member of the Asociación de Pescadores Deportivos de la Costa Tropical, who then shared it online.

As soon as the video began to circulate on social media, people began to call the Town Hall, who sent out an environmental inspector to investigate where it was coming from. Following its trail inland along the riverbed, they confirmed that the factory was the point of origin; It was thick, by-product obtained during the sugarcane refining process.

According to the Vice-Mayor of Salobreña, Mariola Martínez, a transfer of molasses between tanks was reportedly taking place within the factory premises on Wednesday morning. During this process, due to a faulty connection between the tanks, some of the liquid escaped, eventually reaching the mouth of the Guadalfeo and the sea via the irrigation channels and watercourses. The factory itself acknowledged the incident and apologised for the accident.

Although molasses is a natural substance and is generally non-toxic, the Town Hall decided to collect samples from both the irrigation channels and the sea with the aim of determining the concentration of molasses in the water and whether that amount could be harmful to the marine ecosystem or to humans.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

keywords: Sweet Release, Molasses, Accidental Spill, Rio Guadalfeo, River Mouth, Lobres, Sugar Cane

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