The Province of Río Negro called a public hearing for the construction of the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur pipeline that will conclude in Sierra Grande, including a Cargo Terminal in Punta Colorada.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change confirmed the existence of the technical studies necessary to comply with that stage required by provincial legislation. Thus, he established that On Thursday, August 17, that audience will be held in Sierra Grande, starting at 9:30.
Simultaneously, that mountain municipality is evaluating a popular consultation with the objective that its community expresses itself in relation to the realization of the oil pipeline that would reach that town, with the establishment of the loading station on its coasts.
The mayor Renzo Tamburrini supported the YPF project and, now, would hold a popular consultation. Photo File
The communal chief of Sierra Grande, Renzo Tamburrini thinks of a referendum for his community to give an opinion in relation to the construction of the pipeline and the settlement of the Cargo Terminal in Punta Colorada.
The Secretary of Government, José María Clemant recognized BLACK RIVER this possibility and said that the mayor Tamburrini already discussed it with the governor Arabela Carreras, and also, there are contacts with other provincial officials.
The mountain antecedent
Clemant claimed that the objective is that the community thinks of the project. The projected date for the consultation is in August or September.
In December 2017, Former community chief Nelson Iribarren called a plebiscite in relation to the then nuclear power plant project in Río Negro. On that occasion, 30% of those qualified went to the polls and returned 85% in favor.
That community support came late because the provincial government, with its legislative ratification, had given up on the nuclear power plant being located in Río Negro.
In the case of the pipeline, different organizations from Río Negro have been raising their resistance, even formalizing presentations in the Superior Court of Justice. In the past, that highest court dismissed the appeal because its actors do not have “active standing” to promote this type of process.
The Secretary of the Environment, led by Dina Migani, confirmed that she has the impact studies, for which she resolved the hearing for August 17 -in the Vuta Mahuida gym in Sierra Grande- with the purpose of “gathering data, opinions and contributions” from “public and private institutions, trade union organizations, NGOs, and all those individuals or legal entities.”
That resolution was signed last Friday and was published yesterday in the Official Gazette.
The project is “out of all natural areas”
The Environment portfolio recalls that YPF is processing the “Environmental Impact Studies of the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur pipeline with Terminal in Punta Colorada”, with its Oil Loading Station in the San Matías Gulf, and specifies the existence of two reports from the secretary provincial, specifying that the project “is outside any provincial natural protected area.”
The design comprises two sections. The first arrives from Loma Campana (Neuquén) to the Allen Station and the second is completed to Punta Colorada.
Initiallythe Province had called a public hearing for March 21, 2023, although it was later suspended, with the argument of “promoting the greatest possible citizen participation to enrich the environmental impact assessment” and “guaranteeing adequate access to reading” the project by the various social actors involved.”
The norm indicates the existence of a “technical opinion where it evaluates the stages of the project, the annexed facilities, the auxiliary services, the hydraulic tests, the special crossings, the different proposed alternatives, the area of direct and indirect influence, the socioeconomic environment , waste management, demanded natural resources, among others.
Likewise, the most relevant factors of the environment are described, the environmental impacts are identified, and the company presents Environmental Management Plans”.