🌊 The Grande de Tárcoles River

🔍 River Overview

The Grande de Tárcoles River, also known as the Tárcoles River, originates on the southern slopes of Costa Rica's Central Volcanic Mountain Range and flows southwest toward the Gulf of Nicoya. The river is 111 km long, and its watershed covers an area of 2,121 km², draining much of the Greater Metropolitan Area, where approximately 50% of the country's population resides.

The river serves as the northern boundary of Carara National Park. It is part of the habitat of the American crocodile, and its riverbanks near the mouth are home to numerous ducks and shorebirds. Among the many resident herons are the boat-billed heron and the tiger heron; other birds that can be seen include the double-striped thick-knee, the mangrove yellow warbler, and the American pygmy kingfisher.

🚯 Pollution Issues

The Grande de Tárcoles carries much of the sewage from the cities of the Costa Rican Central Valley. Approximately 67% of the untreated organic material and industrial waste in Costa Rica is drained by the river. It is estimated that this vital watershed carries over 211,000 kg of plastic every year into the Pacific Ocean. The River was also affected by a spill of about 400,000 liters of diesel by the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (RECOPE) in the year 2000, which further deepened the ecological damage to the river and its surrounding environment.

Volunteers gather every so often to clean up the beach; but it’s a never ending labor, they clean and the tide brings more rubbish, locals mention that especially during the rainy season the beaches receive mountains of trash. Bottles, shoes, plastic containers, tires, toys, clothes, straws, umbrellas, brooms, electronic appliances; the list goes on and on. In 2007 the Bridgestone Company organized a general cleaning of the area and gathered 1000 tires.

Organic waste, agrochemicals and solid wastes are received every day by the rivers María Aguilar, Torres, Tiribí and Rivera in the metropolitan area and that ends up in the Grande de Tárcoles River and later in the Pacific Ocean.

The Guacalillo Mangrove Forest, home to the Nambi Sanctuary (host to four out of five species of mangrove that exist in Costa Rica), and the local fauna are paying the consequences of this disgusting situation. The population of American crocodiles, has been highly affected by the contamination.

In addition to pollution, the area faces threats from deforestation, real estate pressure, and the lack of economic incentives aligned with conservation. The absence of market mechanisms to value ecosystem services has led to progressive degradation, rendering the true value of these natural systems invisible.

Even though Costa Rica is known for its conservation efforts and the protection of its flora and fauna, there has been no one able to find a solution to this problem.