Thursday, November 25, 2010

The Pichilemu, Chile Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has been already working for months, was announced to be officially inaugurated today, according to Pichilemu News. The plant is located in the eastern side of the city, near its entrance by San Antonio de Petrel.

The plant was constructed in part as a result of complaints by Agrupación Ciudadana por un Pichilemu Limpio (Citizen Group for a Clean Pichilemu). The group’s goal was to protect the coastline and stop water pollution. The group was formed in 2005, after it became known that the Mayor of Pichilemu, at the time Jorge Vargas González, supported the construction of an outfall right in front of the Governorate building of Cardenal Caro Province, as the original ESSBIO’s (Empresa de Servicios Sanitarios del Bío Bío; in English, Sanitary Services Company of the Bío Bío) proposal said, according to Pichilemu News. Vargas said that the outfall was “the great solution to get rid of the wastewaters of Pichilemu.”

Although the plant’s construction started in March 2008, the final project, which took into account Agrupación por un Pichilemu Limpio’s complaints, was originally announced three months later during Fiesta por un Pichilemu Limpio (Festival for a Clean Pichilemu) by Mayor Marcelo Cabrera Martínez and Environment Minister Ana Lya Uriarte. According to ESSBIO, 3.885 billion pesos (7.88 million US dollars) were invested in the construction of the wastewater treatment plant.

The inauguration will be attended by Minister of Public Works, Hernán de Solminihac, Mayor Roberto Córdova, along with other national, regional, and local authorities, according to reports.