In compliance with “Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 23 October 2000, establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy”, and following the Recomendaciones para Obras Marítimas 5.1-0.5 Calidad de las aguas litorales en áreas portuarias (ROM—Recommendations for maritime works, 5.1-0.5 Quality of coastal waters in port areas) published by Puertos de Estado, in 2005, Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority began an important environmental project to monitor water quality and maintain it in an optimum state.
The aforementioned European directive sets out a framework to protect continental surface waters, transitional, coastal and underground waters, with a view to preventing, protecting and improving their ecological status. The ROM 5.1-05 has been devised as a tool for monitoring the water quality of port areas and contemplates the singular nature of ports.
Both the directive and the ROM encompass the classification of water masses, the analysis of the pressure and impact to which they are subjected, surveillance to verify the ecological status of the waters (including sediments) and customized programmes for preventing and correcting the sources or state of pollution.

This project is currently at stage three of four stages:

Programme for the definition of uses and classification of water masses
Selection of quality indicators for port waters
Environmental risks assessment and management programme
To this end, in 2006, a contract was awarded for “Technical Assistance for Testing as part of the Systematic Surveillance Plan of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority”, which was developed and implemented in 2007 and 2008, the results of which will be the selection of quality indicators for port waters.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority, along with those of Gijón, Tarragona, Huelva and Santander, is one of the pioneering ports in Spain, in applying this non-obligatory recommendation.

ALERMAC

The area of port operations has benefitted from the introduction of a project as part of the integrated network for monitoring, early-warning and managing risks of pollutant discharge and catastrophic incidents in the Macaronesian Maritime Zone. This project began in 2004 and consisted of an initial approach stage to create, implement and validate a network of early-warning and surveillance based on two fundamental components: monitoring the discharge of hydrocarbons and other toxic substances (by means of sensors fitted to autonomous floating buoys) and accident/incident risk prevention in the maritime zone (by means of probabilistic risk analysis, connected to an intelligent system of control and comprehensive management in real time).
This project, funded by the European Union through the INTERREG III B programme, was devised as a regional project in which Puertos de Tenerife participated along with the port authorities of Las Palmas, Madeira and Cape Verde. The experimentation and follow-up phases concluded in 2006.