Five children from the Republic of Peru School arrived at the SAR of Hualpén, province of Concepción, on Monday, October 24. Nausea, vomiting and headaches forced her to be transferred to the health center and to suspend classes, amid a smell of gas that was easily distinguishable by the community near ENAP Bío Bío Refinery. Later, the JUNJI Station of the National Air Quality Information System in the Biobío Region commune would show that on that day, between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., the more than 400 minors who attend establishments near the plant were exposed to concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) that doubled their usual levels.
This is one of the most recent “events” –What does the state company call these emergency situations?– in Hualpén, which had the peculiarity of not having been communicated by the company in a preventive manner to the local authorities and the community. “ENAP did not notify the Department of the Environment or the municipality at any time. They were aware of the complaint that was made through the health service, which seems very serious to us,” says Matías Rifo, an independent councilor.
The fact is just the tip of the iceberg of the environmental problems of this sacrifice zone that haunts even the dreams of the Hualpenino community. “Here if you ask what is the most recurring nightmare when sleeping, the most common answer is an explosion at ENAP. This is part of our culture, because the recurring smell of gas also permeates our mental health. We are always seeing the flames of ENAP, pending the color of the smoke that comes out, whether the alarm sounds,” says Rifo, who is also a member of the Wallpen Territorial Coordinator.
What is also common among neighbors and neighbors is to call the company a “monster.” María Mendoza, a neighborhood leader, says that “Hualpén has been a sacrifice zone for many years, due to a company that we classify as a monster. We feel like we’re on a ticking time bomb. Here we are in the backyard of the refinery, so we know what it is like to live a lifetime contaminated.”
Eradication and neighbors waiting
In the case of the residents of the two towns closest to ENAP, Nueva El Triángulo and Villa El Triángulo, this life of the smell of gas, worries about Dantesque torches and thick black smoke, has also involved being part of a process of eradication from their homes, due to the exposure to high levels of contamination that they have suffered for three decades now, when residential buildings were inexplicably allowed no more than 200 meters from the plant, from which they are divided only by a road.
Since in 2015 neighbors and neighbors began to sign the relocation plan, which was configured in a tripartite table in which ENAP, the Ministry of Housing and the Regional Government of Biobío participate, and since the transfers began in 2018, the 70 % of the 278 families that joined the plan already live in their new homes, which currently leaves 94 on hold, including Mrs. María.
“The relocation process is currently in progress. stand-by, because we neighbors have faced the rise in prices and the money that there is for new homes, which is 1,400 UF. It is not enough for the value of the houses in Hualpén and, as we said from the beginning, we do not want to leave the community. The houses in general are above 50 million and, in addition, they are old, so they have to be completely repaired. It is supposed that we worked for something better than what we had, but things have not turned out that way. It has been very difficult”, emphasizes the leader, whose neighborhood association is close to disappearing.
Just last Thursday, a delegation from Hualpén traveled to Santiago to meet with the Minvu and try to find solutions for the families that remain in suspense, living among the ruins of houses that have already been abandoned. “We met with Minister Carlos Montes to see how we can improve the subsidy they have. ENAP has systematically refused to be able to contribute a little more resources for eradication”, commented the mayor of Hualpén, Miguel Rivera, after the appointment.
José Gutiérrez, a neighborhood leader who has been at the head of the negotiations to address the situation of the households awaiting relocation, also participated in the meeting at the Minvu and valued that “Minister Montes set a deadline to collect all the information, including knowing the origin of the construction of these houses in the vicinity of the plant more than 30 years ago (…) In addition, he promised to seek a solution urgently”.
While the Minvu and the Regional Government are working to see how to increase the resources with the accounts of the families for a transfer, until now the company has not shown willingness to increase the resources initially committed for this purpose, according to what Mayor Rivera has alleged in different instances.
“I did not know where Hualpén was”
To address this issue and everything related to the sacrifice zone, the mayor who took office in July of last year has already held meetings with three Enap general managers. On November 24, 2021, with Andrés Roccatagliata; then on May 3, 2022, with Julio Aranis Vargas; and on June 30 with Patricio Farfán, then deputy general manager and currently interim general manager.
At the time of the evaluations, Rivera comments that with Roccatagliata “moderately progressed” since he had “a good disposition”. However, with Aranis the situation was different. “I didn’t know where Hualpén was. It was a rather unpleasant meeting, very short for half an hour, from which we obviously did not get anything (…) We feel that it was disrespectful,” recalls the mayor.
It should be noted that Aranis’ departure from general management took place after the start of the trial for the so-called “Iranian crude” bullring, where six ENAP executives face a lawsuit for the intoxication in 2018 of more than 1,400 people from Quintero-Puchuncaví, Valparaíso Region, and Talcahuano, Biobío Region, for the discharge, drainage and storage of oil from Iran.
Meanwhile, according to Rivera, the understanding has been better with Farfán, which has resulted in an investment plan of 1,800 million pesos for the company in Hualpén, to the replacement of the Second Fire Company, a roofed gymnasium for the República del Perú school and footbridges in a canal adjacent to a health center, which the Municipality greatly values, emphasizing that although it is progress, there are still many issues pending with the company.
Despite the insistence, the company did not answer the questions of The counter
“We don’t know what we’re breathing”
The mayor delved into that within the framework of the investigative commission of the Chamber of Deputies for “Eventual irregularities committed by ENAP”. In the session of October 5, he began by pointing out that “the patent that is paid is a mockery,” noting that $24,902 were paid in the first half of this year and $27,453 in the second, so that “the grocer, the hairdresser and the person who works at the fair pays much more than ENAP Refinery in Hualpén”.
The company’s explanation, regarding that they have paid the minimum for the losses and high debts of recent years that could be reversed in the results of 2022, does not satisfy the Hualpeninos, who in any case have more complaints against Enap.
According to the mayor, they lack information regarding the treatment that the company gives to the noise generated by the petcoke refinery, a porous and grayish solid, which according to the Terram Foundation “contains high amounts of sulfur and heavy metals, such as nickel and vanadium , dangerous for the health of the population and the environment”.
Nor have they been transparent with the investment they must make to update their production processes, according to Rivera, who also alleges that they have not provided all the emissions reports that are required of them. “We do not know what we are breathing,” says the mayor.
In fact, at this time, ENAP Bío Bío Refinery is facing a new sanctioning process in relation to these matters. Based on citizen complaints for large flares observed on June 3, 2021, the Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) audited in March of this year and distinguished two faults in the Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA). Specifically, it was verified that one of the torches was not replaced and all the monthly emissions monitoring reports that are required to be submitted have not been submitted. The first implied a formulation of charge for 588 UTA and the second, for 277 UTA.
According to Fernando Cortez, an advisory attorney for the Municipality of Hualpén, ENAP made discharges but in return the SMA demanded new information, which must be delivered within the next few days and which will be crucial for the reformulation of charges and the associated fine.
On the other hand, the doubts that Mayor Rivera has raised must be answered by the company based on the letter that the Chamber of Deputies sent on October 11 to the interim general manager of ENAP, Patricio Farfán, which at the close of this edition did not it had ocurred.
The lack of responses to the community of Hualpén by the state company, which was consulted for this report and refrained from responding, also leaves the effects that its emissions have on the health of the inhabitants in a nebulous state. In this matter, the universities, which send practitioners to ENAP, are also indebted to the commune, but they have not dared to do research on the damage that it may be generating.
However, the indications that are available are alarming. “Within the Hualpén commune we have three primary health care centers and something very special is happening. In the Florencia office, where the largest number of people who live near the refinery are cared for, we have a tremendous number of respiratory diseases and also the highest mortality rate in that sector is from cancer, which is not the same as what happens in the other two offices,” says Rivera.
