We share with you the column published on Saturday, February 26 in El Mercurio de Valparaíso, where Professor Luis Álvarez, academic former director of the Institute of Geography @PUCV and part of the Committee of Experts of Sanitation of the Las Salinas project. Below we transcribe the full text: With concern I read last February 23 the article “Las Salinas: a scientific problem?” written by Pablo Roncagliolo, neighbor of Viña del Mar, which exposes a series of legitimate questions, but with completely absurd and unsubstantiated answers. This article only seeks to belittle the intense and rigorous work that we scientists of the Valparaiso Region have led. In fact, it is laughable to compare the bioremediation process, to clean up an environmental liability, with economic activities such as salmon farming or forestry. One of the questions asked is which is the safest remediation for the Las Salinas sector and the one that generates the least negative externalities for the city. The decision to recommend bioremediation, a process that already occurs naturally at the site, but slowly and asymmetrically, is not an arbitrary one. Other alternatives mentioned by the concerned neighbor, such as thermo-remediation or phytoremediation, were studied for years but were discarded not only because of their inability to clean up the land, but also because they generate much more severe externalities than bioremediation. On the other hand, there is a high level of ignorance of the land: many times, the opponents of the bioremediation process speak of “soil”, but for a good application of the concepts what we generically have is a “soil” and, in Las Salinas, this is of mineral type. They are rather “sands” of Holocene origin, where the main component is quartz sediments. That is why it is not correct to speak of “soil”, because it is associated with organic soil, which is scarce in Las Salinas. The above explanation is extremely important because the sands, as in the case of the terrain we are dealing with, have a minimum particulate material that can remain in suspension. That is to say, strictly speaking, the movement of sand does not raise substantial “dust”, because its origin, granulometry and density make it behave differently from the imaginary one that the opponents of the project insist on developing. Regarding remediation, it is a process whose activities and processes will occur exclusively within the site. In the case of the transfer of hazardous waste (respel) to a safety landfill, it is necessary to point out that these 9,000 tons is the worst case scenario. It would indeed imply the departure of trucks from the site, but these would transport sealed drums, as was done in the first remediation process, between 2009 and 2012, where the amount of contaminated material was clearly higher. On the other hand, following the worst case scenario, the respel would be moved gradually, so it is a gross caricature that is now being presented that there will be hundreds of trucks spreading hazardous material throughout the city. This has never been the case, nor will it be in the future. Mr. Roncagliolo also dares to sow the doubt that the bioremediation project would be one of the largest industrial operations in Viña del Mar since 1915, which is a direct misrepresentation of the truth.
Do you not remember the project to bury the railroad from Caleta Abarca to Chorrillos (5 kilometers), with removal sections of up to 12 meters deep on average, passing through environmental liabilities of the CRAV, four wetlands, water pipelines, gas, landfills and countless channels carrying sewage. On that occasion more than 200 hectares of soil were removed, with a diversity of contaminants in the most industrialized area of Viña del Mar. And why remember the “Gran Valparaíso sanitation collector”, which had the city traumatized for 5 years, opening and burying large extensions of land of contaminated soil by the same primitive system of evacuation of urban and especially industrial sewage. So, would this remediation, which involves sequential work on a 16-hectare site, really be the largest industrial site in Viña del Mar? Finally, this site is effectively the last available land in the city to generate a qualitative leap in urban renewal, and for this the environmental liabilities must be resolved in the best way possible. The urban project will be integral and there will also be housing, within a park, not only the trees that generate the “respite” or air that detractors point out. We advocate the relevance of the “blue lung”, the true green area, the sea, which is half of the green area of the planet: it is the one that regulates the summer temperatures, from where we get the breezes and permanent wind in a coastal city, which makes a livable city. Because we have no frosts or cold winters, nor atmospheric pollution. The sea is our great green area, let’s stop thinking Mediterranean as Santiaguinos, we are a coastal city, let’s recognize that value. Luis Álvarez Aránguiz Professor of History and Geography Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Chile PUCV Academic Member of the Committee of Experts on Sanitation for Las Salinas.
