The Landfill, as they call the garbage dump Barilochelocated at kilometer 40 of the National Route in front of the El Pilar neighborhood, is an environmental problem that has not been solved for years despite the complaints of its neighbors about the bad smell, the toxic gases that would be emanating from the dump and affecting the health of those who live nearby, the fires that occur in the garbage and the risk that it contaminates Lake Nahuel Huapi.
Tania Mesa, a resident of the 29 de Septiembre neighborhood, one of the places affected by the smoke from the fires, says: “There were plans to move it, but I’ve been here in the neighborhood for four years and the dump is still there. When it lights up you have to put up with the smoke”. In addition, she adds that the recycling plant that they recently opened as a way to solve the environmental impact “is not working as expected.”
Daniel Fuentes is president of the neighborhood council of The Pillar and historian. He says that the dump is a legacy of the dictatorship that dates back to 1976, when the municipal government began using the quarry where the Landfill is located today to deposit waste. At that time, the quarry was exploited by the Robles company, which later abandoned when it obtained the concession for the means of elevation of Cerro Catedral. From that moment on, the municipality takes over control of the dump. “It is an inheritance that no democratic government has solved. For many years there were permanent fires, many of them intentional, because the companies contracted by the municipality crushed the garbage and moved it sideways, without a moderately sustainable management, and when there was no space, the garbage was burned on purpose to make more room, ” Fuentes account.
GOES AND RETURNS
Sources linked to the Landfill say that at the beginning of 2020 a call was opened in the municipality for several companies to present solutions to the problem of the landfill. But the evaluating commission rejected the proposals. “The only thing that was going to be put out to tender is the administration of the Landfill, not the differentiated collection that was still going to remain in the hands of the municipality,” they explain, adding that despite the fact that the start of differentiated collection was announced in 2014, this never worked properly. “You can have the best project in the world but if you don’t separate the waste, the truth is that you are not going to improve anything,” they say.
In 2019, an injunction granted by the Supreme Court of Justice of Río Negro called for the removal of the dump from the site. However, in 2020 the order was appealed by the municipality, which demands that a new study be carried out to quantify and conclude that the damage to those affected is due to the dump and not to something else. The neighborhood councils do not have a budget to carry out this study.
Recently, the municipality announced that a tender will be opened for a biogas plant to solve the problem of waste. Time will tell if the conflict comes to an end.
