The new plant will increase the amount of pulp production in the country by 50% and there are great expectations that it will sustain exports this year.
He Ministry of Environment announced today at a press conference the start of the operations phase of the plant PSU 2, and presented a Baseline for monitoring its environmental parameters. The national government will monitor industrial activities and their impact on the Black river and its surroundings.
Uruguay XXI indicated in its annual international trade report that it expects to export a 50% more cellulose in the run of 2023until reaching a figure close to 2,066 million dollars. Therefore, a strong boost in the country’s exports is expected with the completion of the project.
According to the Minister of Environment, Robert Bouvier, this Baseline “is a fundamental instrument to assess the environmental effects that the operation may have on the environment.” His portfolio had already carried out the corresponding audits and inspections.
In this line, the director of the Division of High Complexity Enterprises of the Environment, Eugenio Lawrenceassured that “this tool yields results regarding the water quality of the Negro River and the air quality, which have been monitored for years.”
The ministry’s technicians have kept a record for more than two years of the different qualitative variables, such as, in addition to water and air, sediments and biota in the area.
According to speculation, it is possible that the formal authorization will be signed tomorrow, Friday, April 14. Once this occurs, the free zone will be declared in favor of the company and it will be possible to know exactly the date when it will officially start working.
The Ministry of the Environment prepared the UPM 2 Baseline report
The Ministry of Environment made public the report of UPM Baseline 2, which is comprised of about 296 pages in PDF format. From the portfolio, they assure that given the size of the venture, “we understand it is important to have this report available to the public for consultation on our website.” See the report here.
According to Bouvier, this report “containing the levels of said variables with which the measurements after the operation of the plant will be compared and will determine if there are effects on the quality of the environment”, is “a tool that gives the State Uruguayan even more environmental guarantees”.
Source: Ambito
