Ecobreves – CHILE: Paper Mill Fined

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Jul 8 2006 (IPS) - The company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (CELCO), located in the 10th Chilean region of Los Lagos, will have to pay a fine of about 60,000 dollars for the foul odors emanating from its mill in 2004, ruled the Appeals Court, upholding a sentence of the health authorities in the city of Valdivia. The stench was perceptible 60 kilometers away, and triggered a range of health problems amongst the residents of San José de la Mariquina, north of Valdivia.

Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Environmental Conflict Observatory (OLCA), said in a Tierramérica interview that the ruling sets a positive precedent, and activists hope for a repeat in other cases before the courts against CELCO, because, in his opinion, “there are administrative and environmental incidents that justify the closing of the mill.”