A glass container plant in Rosario (approximately 280 km north west of Buenos Aires) was approved by the the Regional Environmental Commission (Corema) of the VI Region. The project for the Pathfinder…
A glass container plant in Rosario (approximately 280 km north west of Buenos Aires) was approved by the the Regional Environmental Commission (Corema) of the VI Region. The project for the Pathfinder plant had run into problems with Corema and was rejected in November 2004 because of various objections. However, on its second presentation the factory plan was approved by the representatives of 14 authorities on the commission. The glass processing plant will create 200 new jobs and require an investment of USD 40 million. In order to provide environmental data, Pathfinder pledged to install an atmospheric monitoring system for particulates and ozone for three years to the south of Requnoa. The plant will use a 240-tonnes per day furnace, whose emissions of particulates, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide will be below regulation limits. The fuel used will be natural gas, with oil as a backup. The new plant will be situated in the locality of Rosario, on the site of an abandoned factory. In November 2004, Cormena felt that it was unable to approve the Pathfinder project in the absence of up-to-date figures for air quality in the area. At the time, it was thought that the area might have problems with latente particulates, which is the pre-condition for being declared a saturated area. In addition, the compensation measures proposed by the company for the loss of agricultural land were not seen as very clear. The initiative was also criticized by wine growers in the Cachapoal valley, who considered that there was insufficient solid evidence that the plant would be non-polluting.