Owners of Fundo Panul fail to comply with industrial waste removal plan
The Navarrete Rolando family (OXIQUIM) has once again damaged Bosque Panul by bringing heavy machinery into the forest to remove the tonnes of sea sand and other waste they dumped there for decades. This, despite the State ordering them to remove the sand according to the plan presented by the community, with minimal impact on the ecosystem. The Navarrete family chose to cut the budget and do it their own way, demonstrating once again that powerful families in this country do whatever they want.
The Navarrete Rolando family (OXIQUIM) was ordered to remove 2,000 cubic meters (tonnes) of sea sand they spread over nearly 40 years in the iconic Bosque Panul in the municipality of La Florida.
The Second Environmental Court ordered the SMA (Superintendency of the Environment) to fine the Navarrete family and require them to submit a plan for removing this sand, for contaminating the ecosystem and posing a risk to homes downstream. All this, despite the fact that the forest is legally unprotected — which made this a victory for its defenders.
In parallel, the community submitted a sand removal plan to the SMA aimed at minimizing impact, reducing the use of machinery and only allowing manual extraction in areas where machinery cannot pass. This plan was very different from the one presented by the Navarrete family, which proposed the use of excavators and heavy-tonnage trucks. The SMA accepted the community's plan.
However, the owners of Fundo Panul ignored this plan and brought heavy machinery into sensitive areas of the forest, causing serious damage to the ecosystem. The community, which was always monitoring on the ground, reported this to the Court and the SMA.
Faced with the slow response from this agency, the organized community at the Parque Comunitario was called to the site and halted the operations.
We hope the SMA will do its job and carry out on-site inspections of the serious damage the Navarrete Rolando family has once again caused. This family, which received Fundo Panul as a gift during the dictatorship and tried to raze the forest to build 1,300 homes, once again flouts the State by imposing a removal plan that was not the one authorized.
We thank everyone who responded to the call and helped stop the operations, or supported its dissemination. This monitoring work will continue until the SMA responds.
October 7, 2020
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera.
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