The advance of a high-end housing project on the shores of Lake Gutiérrez sowed the alarm among the residents of Villa Los Coihues due to the risk of contamination with sewage effluents for that body of water. As they had done a few months ago, with the previous government, they now once again demanded that the municipality review the construction permits already granted to entrepreneurs.
The public beach located on that Gutiérrez bay (about 15 kilometers from Bariloche) registers massive use, especially in summer, and the neighborhood is also supplied with water for the home network from there.
From the neighborhood council they warned that the work is in full executionwhich would comprise several three-story modules with 48 luxury residences and that there is already a web page in which they describe the details seeking to tempt potential buyers.
Even so, It remains unresolved how the waste generated there will be processed.. According to the neighborhood council, in the file only the construction of a “nitrifying bed” appears, which would be insufficient for that volume and that use.
The secretary of Territorial Planning of the municipality, Aldo Painemil, assured this medium that the developers do not have the definitive authorization.They still owe the presentation of a wastewater treatment plant project.
He acknowledged that the latest actions they carried out arose from “the concerns of the neighbors,” and that previous municipal management had granted permits that did not correspond, according to the code. “I don’t know what parameter they have taken, but now we demand a plant with the characteristics for that place and that number of units – explained the official -. They will be able to continue with the work but they will not have the end of the work without the treatment plant.”
Painemil said that the responsible architect has already provided a “preliminary” sketch and should present the final project of the plant in the next 15 days.
A heavenly place
On the northern end of Lake Gutiérrez, located within the municipal ejido of Bariloche, the Hostel El Retorno, which closed a decade ago. Some time later the building was looted and was left in ruins. It was bought at that time by the businessman Cristóbal López, as reported by the national press.
The neighbors also complained that the mega project to locate there the new venture real estate “did not go through any consultation process” in which they could inform themselves and give their opinion. There was also no public hearing.
On his website heThe company that offers “terraced” apartments on the Gutiérrez, with 2, 3 and 4 rooms, with “amenities”, and seems to be aware of the questions. He opens his presentation with an express declaration of “environmental commitment”with a video in which it claims to have technology to treat effluents “in a primary, secondary and tertiary manner” in order to guarantee that “no toxic or dangerous waste discharges or comes into contact with the lake.”
But in The municipality assured that they still do not know the details of that system and the technology they plan to use.
Painemil said that according to what was discussed, one possibility is that the floor would be “larger” than what the apartment complex needs, with the possibility that it could also serve “at least in part” the front owners of Los Coihues.
The Neighborhood Council also wants to know how many apartments there are, because defining the population load of the property is a key issue. They assured that the information is “diffuse” because there is talk of both 24 and 48 departments.
They ask for review
From the Neighborhood Council they requested the intervention of the Municipal Council and They reiterated a concern that they had already made public last November, during the administration of former mayor Gustavo Gennuso. The Environment and Habitat Commission of the Board made it known that the treatment of the project involves “serious irregularities”, because There were technicians from the municipality’s environmental areas who made observations at the time, but the approval advanced without taking them into account.
They asked what the viability of the work is if it does not clarify how the effluent treatment will be resolved. They also recalled that this coastal property already demonstrated a limited absorption capacity, as happened at the time with the El Retorno inn and its predecessor Los Coihues inn.
“As an affected community, we express our concern about the progress of the project, its sustainability, and we request that it be reviewed. and reconsider the processing of the file,” they asked Secretary Painemil and also the councilors in a note.
