The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) initiated a sanctioning procedure against Bío Bío Cementos SA, owner of the Inacesa Plant, located in the commune of Antofagasta, Antofagasta Region, for “non-compliance related to the control measures that the company must implement to emissions management.
In the environmental evaluations of the project – which considers a lime plant and a cement plant – the atmosphere and air quality were identified as a relevant component. As a result of the above, a series of obligations were established to protect this environmental component. However, in inspection activities carried out by the SMA it was found that the measures implemented to control emissions have been “deficient and do not meet their objective.”
“In the case of the lime plant, limestone was stored outside the reception hopper and the storage shed, and a crack was observed in its roof,” the audited entity detailed. On the other hand, in the cement plant, “the limestone stored was uncovered, in addition to the fact that gypsum was stored in three piles, of which only two were covered.”
The SMA carried out a review of the air quality monitoring reports available in the Environmental Monitoring System, where it was found that in the periods between 2014-2016 and 2018-2023, an exceedance was recorded in the values of particulate matter estimated in air quality.
Based on this background, and the non-compliance with the Environmental Qualification Resolutions (RCA) that the project has, a charge classified as serious was charged. With this, the owner risks a fine of up to 5,000 UTA, equivalent to $3,946 million; the revocation of his RCA; or temporary or permanent closure.
The regional head of the SMA in Antofagasta, Sandra Cortez, explained that “in the inspection activities, the regional office was able to observe different non-compliance with the owner’s RCA. One of them related to the accumulation of dust and the adequate confinement of the limestone, since it was collected outside the infrastructure that makes up the reception and storage system.”
Superintendent Marie Claude Plumer pointed out that “the call to the owners is to comply with what is established in their Environmental Qualification Resolutions, that is, with the obligations to which companies commit in order to operate. “It is part of the rules of the game and the rule of law.”
The company will have a period of 10 business days to present a Compliance Program and 15 business days to formulate its defenses, both periods counting from the notification of this administrative act.