Dozens of people demonstrated in different places in the Bay of Quineros-Puchuncaví, Valparaíso, to demand measures against the industry after a case of contamination.
on June 9 last. Cristobal Basaure (EFE)
More than a hundred residents of the Quintero-Puchuncaví bay (Valparaíso) were poisoned last week due to high levels of sulfur dioxide emanating from an industrial cordon built half a century ago.
Most of those affected were children and classes were suspended in schools.
This is one of the five
sacrifice zones in
the country, so called because public and private companies affect the health of the inhabitants.
The authorities of the Government of Gabriel Boric decreed a health alert, they promised to carry out a study and diagnosis on the impact of toxic gases on the population, one of the measures ordered by the Supreme Court in a 2019 ruling -the Norwegian Institute of Quality of the Air (NILU) carried out one in 2020-, and issued a resolution for 20 companies in the area to adjust their operational plans considering stricter standards.
"We live in the gas chamber of the Chilean State," accuses Katta Alonso, president of Women of Sacrifice Zones in Resistance.
In the bay of coastal towns where some 50,000 people live, 100 kilometers from Santiago, there are 14 companies.
On the list are three thermoelectric plants owned by AES Gener, a copper smelter plant owned by state giant Codelco and an oil refinery owned by ENAP.
In recent years, a string of episodes of massive poisoning by polluting gases have been recorded.
The most serious occurred in 2018, when in just two months almost 1,400 people were treated at the Quintero Hospital for poisoning.
After that episode, the Supreme Court ruling came out, establishing 14 measures.
"Most of them have not been fulfilled or have been partially fulfilled", affirms Flavia Liberona, director of the Terram Foundation.
"For example, the amount of gases or compounds produced by each company in the area is still unknown," she adds.
Alonso criticizes the response of the Government of Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022).
“They implemented Critical Episode Management (GEC) for when there is poor ventilation in the bay in winter and a decontamination plan with very limited measures.
When you have so many polluting companies, those things are useless and it has been shown why the episodes of intoxication continue”, says the environmental activist.
“Here we lived from tourism, fishing and agriculture.
Everything fell apart;
People leave.
We do not have sewage systems and 80% of the population accesses drinking water through tanker trucks,” she maintains.
Her hope is in the Boric government and in the new Constitution, if it is approved.
The current Magna Carta establishes the right to live in a pollution-free environment.
The Prevention and Decontamination Plan establishes that the Codelco Ventanas smelter, in Puchuncaví, is one of the companies that emits the most sulfur dioxide emissions.
"In this context," says the Minister of the Environment, Maisa Rojas, "the closure or transfer of the smelter is something that is being evaluated, like any other measure that could help improve the situation in the area."
Alonso advocates that the plant be moved to the desert.
“We cannot continue like this.
Everything is contaminated, soil, water and air.
One day the beach wakes up full of coal, the next our children are intoxicated.
One in four students has cognitive problems,” says the activist, citing figures from the School Integration Program (PIE).
Codelco, which did not want to answer the questions of this newspaper, has voluntarily kept its work suspended since last June 6, the date of the neighbors' contamination episode.
That day, the Quintero monitoring station recorded a sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission event that exceeded four times the hourly standard.
The company said in a statement that "it aspires to clarify the responsibilities after the intoxications" produced at times when "the air quality stations recorded normal parameters of the concentrations of (SO2)".
A study commissioned by the Sustainable Chile program published this March concluded that the emission levels in the slaughter zones comply with the provisions of the Atmospheric Decontamination Plans (PDA), but not with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO). ).
The maximum emission levels allowed for SO2, for example, are 26.7% higher than recommended.
"In Chile there is no standard for dioxins or furans, those for water are very few and in the case of soil, non-existent, so it is impossible to know the degree of contamination in the soil that exists in these communes," says Liberona. , from Terram.
The entity walks on the Ventana beach, near the AES Gener thermoelectric plant in Puchuncaví, Valparaíso region, Chile, on June 9, 2022. MARTIN BERNETTI (AFP)
One of the criticisms that has been made of this situation is that the State is the judge and part of the problem by regulating Codelco, a state company.
“Since we took office, we have made it clear that there are no more flexible standards for state companies and that they must quickly incorporate existing best practices,” Minister Rojas maintains in an email.
“We understand that the sustainability of companies over time depends on improving environmental conditions and protecting the health of the population.
Considering that better environmental standards cannot be established due to the possibility of affecting the budget of companies is not understanding the close link between both considerations, ”she adds.
strike threat
Codelco employees threatened to paralyze activities this Wednesday if they do not receive a "categorical response in Congress regarding the investment in Codelco."
The Federation of Copper Workers (FTC) states that the Ventanas division needs 50 million dollars to continue carrying out its operations under environmental compliance.
Esteban Contardo, author of
Náusea
(La pollera, 2022), has been investigating polluting events in Quintero Bay since 2018 for his book, which includes the physical and psychological repercussions on the community due to toxic gases.
“The existence of this sacrifice zone has been normalized.
There is also a lot of invisibility.
The facts of contamination are not only those that are seen in the press.
It is a story that has been around for the last 30 years,” he says over the phone.
"I wanted to protect the memory of a community where people die of cancer, have respiratory problems, heart problems."
Two of his interviewees died of cancer - one at 55 and the other at 53 - before the volume was published.
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