The Finnish company contaminated the Sauce stream with caustic soda, which caused the death of the flora and fauna of the Rio Negro.
The Ministry of Environment presented a report to the Executive power where he detailed the mortality of the flora and fauna that caused the waste of caustic soda by the plant UPM Bull Pass in the stream Willow, although he stressed that it will not take long to recover.
In mid-August, the Finnish company’s plant reported that it had discharged an effluent with high pH levels containing caustic soda into the Sauce stream. This caused the Ministry of the Environment to apply a fine of 1,000 Resettable Units (UR)which would be equivalent to 1.6 million Uruguayan pesos.
With this, the MA presented to the Legislative power a preliminary report on the impacts generated by the environmental incident, carried out by the department of Evaluation and Environmental Quality. There, the loss of some plant species of aquatic and rooted flora was indicated, as well as a possible destruction of microalgae. On the other hand, the mortality of more than 250 mojarras, catfish, bitterheads and chestnuts was verified, although they stressed that the losses “were not many,” as explained by the director of Evaluation and Environmental Quality of the MA, Eduardo Andres.
The leader assured that the stream is recovering, since the “natural evolution” of the system is occurring. “Do not be afraid because he will recover,” said Andrés, who added that it will not take long to recover. “In fact, if you look at the photos from a week ago, you will see that there is no evidence that anything happened there,” he added.
Although the ministry assures that there are still fish and bivalves In the area, they admitted the mortality of all the beings that lived in that section of the course, something that also happened with some fish that lived in the discharge of the stream. The portfolio assured that the recovery would occur “in a few months” or would even take up to a year.
Environment considers that there was “non-compliance” on the part of UPM
The incident occurred on August 16, an event that was discovered by a neighbor who noticed the death of several fish in the riverbed and abnormal characteristics in the water. According to the ministerial report, the loss was caused by a filtration in the control poolwhich infiltrated the earth and then reached the stream.
The Minister of the Environment, Robert Bouvier, He assured legislators that “far from wanting to minimize” the incident, the discharge was 950 cubic meters of liquid, which was equivalent to 50 cubic meters of 50% concentrated caustic soda. The report established that the conditions of the pool did not meet the requirements of the Operational Environmental Management Plan, to which the company had committed itself, so it was stipulated a fine of 1,000 UR.
Meanwhile, the report established that the incident corresponded to “non-observance by the company of the signals that those sensors were delivering.” Which generated the reaction of several legislators who even bought it with Chernobyl, the nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine, in the then Soviet Union. “In Chernobyl The sensors were also saying that something was happening,” stated Carlos Vega.
Source: Ambito
