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Naturalizing Pollution: a Critical Social Science View on the Link Between View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Diposit Digital de Documents de la UAB Naturalizing pollution: a critical social science view on the link between potash rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org mining and salinization in the Llobregat river basin, northeast Spain Review Santiago Gorostiza1 and David Saurı´2 1 Cite this article: Gorostiza S, Saurı´ D. 2019 Institut de Cie`ncies i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 2Departament de Geografia, Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Catalunya, Spain Naturalizing pollution: a critical social science view on the link between potash mining and SG, 0000-0002-8516-5642 salinization in the Llobregat river basin, The scientific literature distinguishes between primary or natural and second- northeast Spain. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 374: ary or human-induced salinization. Assessing this distinction is of vital 20180006. importance to assign liabilities and responsibilities in pollution cases and for http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0006 designing the best policy and management actions. In this context, actors inter- ested in downplaying the role of certain drivers of human-induced salinization Accepted: 4 October 2018 can attempt to neglect its importance by referring to natural salinization, in a similar fashion to other pollution and health-related cases, from tobacco smoke to climate change. Potash mining, which has experienced continued growth One contribution of 23 to a theme issue ‘Salt during the last decades and is a significant contributor to salinization, is in freshwaters: causes, ecological consequences prone to originate such controversies because natural salinization from the and future prospects’. saline geological catch can be mixed with salinization produced by mining waste such as brines and mine tailings, thus obscuring the distinction between causes. By reviewing the long-standing social and environmental conflict Subject Areas: caused by potash mining in a region of Mediterranean climate—the Llobregat environmental science river basin—in this article, we highlight the importance of the impacts of salinization on human health and provide a critical social science perspective Keywords: on salinization processes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Salt in freshwaters: causes, ecological salinization, Llobregat, environmental history, consequences and future prospects’. environmental justice, water quality, disinfection by-products Author for correspondence: 1. Introduction Santiago Gorostiza How can we best understand the causes of primary and secondary salinization? e-mail: [email protected] Why and how is it possible to naturalize a human-induced process? What would be an alternative framework for fully discerning the social and political nature of salinization and especially of secondary salinization? In attempting to unravel these questions, the social sciences, and most notably, studies seeking to develop interdisciplinary approaches to environmental problems, may be of interest. This has been recognized in major scientific journals such as Science [1] and Nature [2] although the specific character of the collaboration between natural sciences, social sciences and humanities remains open to discussion [3]. At any rate, the reduction of all the complex relationships between nature and society to a black box labelled ‘human activities’ typical of early Earth System models [4] is increasingly called into question. For some authors, leav- ing outside the multiple human and social dimensions and their relationships would be equal to ‘designing a bridge without accounting for traffic’ [2, p. 365]. Bringing the social sciences in may help in improving the understanding of human agency and therefore contribute to designing better policy actions to manage environmental change. Social science focuses, among others, on issues related to identity, difference, justice, ethics and equality [5]. In relation to environ- mental matters, social science would be interested in the question of ‘who gets & 2018 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. what kind of resources (or hazards), where, and how’ and what away environmental and social costs [13–15]. Similar examples 2 are the implications of this for both nature and society alike. abound in many health and pollution cases, from the contami- rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org However and contrary to the more unified scientific corpus of nation caused by nuclear weapons production to climate the natural sciences, social sciences are characterized by more change, where attempts have been made to exonerate the sup- pluralistic views [6]. posedly guilty parties by downplaying human causation In the field of water, two social science communities can be [14,16,17]. This article examines the case of the naturalization identified [7]. First, sociohydrology attempts to become a new of human-induced salinization in historical perspective. science for humans and water [8]. Its aim is the integration of The paper is organized as follows. The next section discusses the structure and dynamics of natural and social systems; the social impacts of human-induced salinization, with particu- the outcomes in terms of well-being for humans and non- lar attention to the potential effects of salinization on human humans, and the values and norms necessary to reach those health. Following this, we examine the case of the salinization outcomes [8,9]. For sociohydrologists, salinization would be of the Llobregat River (northeast Spain) since the 1920s to the Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B an example of a process deeply altered by human behaviour present day, focusing on the discussions about natural and and the ideal research design would be one attempting to human-induced salinization. Finally, in the conclusions, we identify, probably by developing a model, the whole range of point at the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in con- these human behaviours leading to increasing concentrations troversies where causal factors supported by scientific evidence of salt in freshwaters. This model then could be integrated are downplayed, such as the naturalization of pollution. with other models that explore the physical and biological 374 sides of salinization in order to produce new knowledge for : 20180006 sustainability goals. Second, the hydrosocial perspective [7] 2. Potash mining and social impacts would define salinization as a phenomenon constituted by multiple factors originating in both the human and the non- of salinization human world but the consideration of ethics, equity and justice Several human activities such as irrigation for agriculture, would play a central role in the research under the fundamental industrial activities, use of de-icing salts or mining contribute idea that salinization and its effects would not be experienced to the growing global problem of freshwater salinization. equally by those affected. At a deeper level, critical environ- Among the different mining activities contributing to saliniza- mental social science research, that is, research centred upon tion, potash extraction stands as critical. ‘Potash’ refers to a issues of inequality and power in the distribution of envi- wide variety of mined and manufactured salts containing pot- ronmental costs and benefits, also questions the separation assium in water-soluble form, but also chloride, sulfate and between nature and society because this separation is seen other compounds. Its production predominantly focuses on as an obstacle to fully comprehend many environmental the mining of evaporitic salt deposits, and as a result, potash problems and their possible solutions [10]. mine wastes are always saline. Potash is mostly used as a ferti- Regarding freshwater salinization, recent research has lizer, but it also has industrial and chemical applications. Its called for a better integration of the insights of natural and use and importance continue to grow. World production social sciences towards a more complex understanding of increased by 20% between 2012 and 2016, reaching 39.67 salinization processes [11]. River salinization is caused by a million metric tons, while demand for all uses is projected to diverse array of drivers, both natural and anthropogenic. reach 45.6 million tons by 2021 [18–20]. Research within the natural sciences has traditionally distin- Potash ores rank among the major producers of waste of all guished between primary or natural salinization and salt ores. The extraction of potassium generates both liquid and secondary or anthropogenic salinization. Natural salinity of solid waste—brines and tailings—which can be backfilled into rivers is related to the geology of catchments, the proximity of the underground mines but are often disposed in different the sea, vegetation, topography and climate throughout time. ways. Solid tailings are usually piled near the mine site, Secondary or anthropogenic salinization can be caused by a creating large mounds of sodium chloride. If not properly wide bundle of causes including agriculture, mining, industrial impermeabilized, these tailings contribute to salinization activities or use of salt for water de-icing, among others [12]. when rainfall dissolves salts and runoff flows into streams. Therefore, distinguishing
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