Ana Lya Uriarte: "Santiago will always have environmental problems"

SANTIAGO.- The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ana Lya Uriarte, warned today that the Santiago Valley will always have environmental problems and asked for more support from all sectors to help confront the contamination problem. 

“The Metropolitan Region will always have environmental problems, since the mountain range inhibits good ventilation conditions, but there is another issue at stake.  The 501 tickets issued to people who refused to comply with restrictions and the 700 fines given to companies due to emissions are somewhat alarming”, she stated.

Uriarte asserted that, despite announcements that beginning in 2005 there would be no more pre-emergency alerts, the following year Argentina “permanently cut off the supply of natural gas to industries, leaving us only with gas for residential and commercial use”.

This resulted in 100 percent of industrial plants having to implement a massive change to diesel and heavy oil fuels.