A new episode of contamination in Quintero and Puchuncaví, located in the Valparaíso region, triggered the alerts. And it is that an excess in the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) caused more than 50 students and 25 education officials to present symptoms of intoxication. In this regard, the government announced provisional measures against Codelco and AES Gener (today AES Andes).
The head of Environment, Maisa Rojasannounced this Tuesday -after an emergency meeting- the measures, which aim to advance the new standards of the modifications of the operational plans, whose updating will be coordinated by the Seremi of the Environment and the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA).
Likewise, remote sulfur dioxide sensors will be instructed in the facilities of the companies in the industrial park, which will make it possible to predict peak that reflect the monitoring stations.
A meeting will also be scheduled with companies from the industrial park, in order to ask about their plans to deal with critical episodes and communicate in more detail the measures that will be implemented.
AES Chile dismisses responsibility for the events
AES Chile ruled out in a statement its responsibility in the events.
According to AES in a statement, the Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) ruled out the responsibility of the company after an “inspection on the ground”.
“Since 2017, the emissions of the Ventanas Complex have been in line with the SMA and since 2020 with the Ministry of the Environment on its website, information that any citizen can access,” they indicated.
“In addition, the operation of the units is characterized by being constant and without fugitive emissions. At the time of registering the environmental emergency situation, half of the park’s units were detained,” they added.
They also recalled that “since 2020 unit 1 has not been operating in accordance with the decarbonization plans committed to by the company.”
Meanwhile, the deputy manager of Operations and Maintenance of the Ventanas Complex, Marcelo Moralessaid that “we will implement the provisional measures instructed by the SMA immediately to give peace of mind to the community regarding the correct functioning of our abatement systems and the correct application of the operational plan for the management of critical episodes of AES Chile”.
