Environmental Commission blames pollution gauging errors on the "nature of the model"

SANTIAGO.- The director of the Metropolitan Environmental Commission (Conama), Alejandro Smythe, has rebutted criticism for the short notice announcements of high pollution emergency measures and attributed the problem to the “nature of the model” used.

“The model that we use requires the processing of large quantities of information on the McCam network, which is the network that monitors the stations.  Additionally, we need to receive the latest or most up-to-date meteorological forecast for the next day”, Smythe explained during an interview with Telenoche.

Concerning the precision of climactic condition forecasting, Smythe maintained that a pre-emergency scenario has an accuracy rate of approximately 50%, since it is a situation that is very rare.

Referring to criticism of the Environmental Department after the pre-emergency alert that had been issued for yesterday was revoked; Smythe asserted that the decision was made due to the rapid change of meteorological conditions throughout the day.