Document sent to the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA) responds to the 55 observations raised by the authority regarding the impacts of port expansion on the Landscape and Human Environment.
As committed in the Agreement by Valparaíso, together with local and regional authorities, unions, universities, citizen groups and neighbors, Puerto Valparaíso entered the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA), the modifications to the Terminal Cerros de Valparaíso project ( TCVAL), which incorporate the concerns and concerns that arose during the dialogue process carried out with the representatives of the different vocations and the citizens of the port city.
“The expansion of the port of Valparaíso is one of the central elements that give life to the Agreement for Valparaíso and is the strategy that allows maintaining the competitiveness of the port and promoting the development of the city,” stated the president of the EPV Board of Directors, Luis Eduardo. Escobar, who added that “dialogue and consensus have been the path that allowed us to design a project that doubles the capacity of the port and, at the same time, strengthens the economy of the region and improves the quality of life of the city.”
Escobar noted that “in our opinion the project’s urban integration measures, known in environmental processing as mitigation and compensation, that we presented to the environmental authorities take care of the impacts that they asked us to re-evaluate. Furthermore, and of great importance, the measures that we propose fully comply with the commitments that we assumed in the Agreement and that we delivered to President Gabriel Boric, together with the regional governor, the mayor and Mrs. Elena Carvajal, president of the Rapa Nui Neighborhood Council of Rodelillo, representing the citizens.”
Regarding the specific measures proposed in the Addendum submitted to SEA Valparaíso, the president of the EPV Board of Directors explained that “possibly the most important mitigation measure considers reducing the extension of the dock in the original TCVAL project, from 785 to 430 meters, minimizing its impact on the city. Added to this are urban proposals with high impact on the city, heritage and people’s access to the coastline.”
In this sense, he explained that the proposal includes “generating a new public space inside the port area, with views and direct access to the sea; extend the existing coastal promenade; build a plaza in the Bellavista Station sector; and establish a viewpoint on the side of the Costanera Site that goes into the sea.”
“These measures,” Escobar said, “consist of valuing the views of the bay and the sea in a sector that the original project did not consider, and that includes the design and construction of a Plaza del Mar, adjacent to the EFE Bellavista Station. Valparaiso.”
To these works on the coastal edge, Luis Eduardo Escobar pointed out, is added the construction of the new El Arrayán elevator that “will improve the current situation of the area and will allow adding views of the bay and sea in the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site . In addition, the elevator will connect pedestrian and vertically the streets Bustamante, located in the Barrio Puerto, and Almirante Riveros, on the Arrayán hill, thus allowing the pedestrian connection and generating views towards the bay, the Quebrada Márquez housing center and the Church La Matrix”.
Regarding the measures included for Medio Humano, the other component analyzed at the request of the SEA, the president of the Board of Directors of EPV stated that the company developed a survey of historical information on fishing activity and indicated that, while the new cove is being built in the sector of Roca la Baja, it is proposed to implement a plan for the management of good coexistence and conflict resolution in El Manzano cove in Quintero, which is added to a Voluntary Environmental Commitment (CAV) that consists of the maintenance of infrastructure and equipment productive, thus ensuring the material conditions for the development of artisanal fishing activity in that cove.
Main changes of the project
It should be remembered that the environmental authority instructed to re-evaluate two components of the original environmental authorization of the project, referring to impacts on the landscape of Valparaíso and the fishermen of the former South American cove. The rest of the Environmental Qualification Resolution, RCA, for the development of the port expansion was held firm.
In the first area, related to landscape impacts, the landscape impact assessment guide of the 2019 Environmental Impact Assessment System was used, the heritage components according to the new approaches proposed by UNESCO, as well as other heritage methodologies. for the study of this component.
Also considering the citizen concerns that arose during the dialogue process and included in the Valparaíso Agreement, the measures proposed are:
• Mitigation measure that corresponds to the reduction of the surface of the terminal to half that occupied by the original TCVAL project and which will now receive the name Sitio Costanera.
• Compensation measure, Construction and Maintenance of the new Malecón, an 830-meter-long coastal promenade that can be traveled on foot or by bicycle and that will connect the future Parque Barón with the new viewpoint promenade in the port.
• Compensation measure, Construction and Maintenance of the new Mirador del Puerto, a 291 meter long coastal promenade so that people can observe the port activity from a privileged position at one of the ends of the new Costanera Site.
• Compensation measure, Creation and Maintenance of the new Plaza del Mar of 1,500 square meters with a level crossing at the Bellavista station and urban equipment, which will allow connecting the Mirador del Puerto with the Malecón.
• Compensation measure, Construction of the new El Arrayán elevator intended to promote tourism in the Puerto neighborhood, including an improvement of the Julio Acuña climb. Once built, it will be operated and maintained by the Municipality of Valparaíso.
Regarding the human environment component, work was done on the characterization of the fishing activity of the former South American cove, prior to the transfer of its activity to Laguna Verde and Quintero. While the construction of the new cove in Roca la Baja is completed, it is proposed:
• Create a mechanism that ensures good coexistence and facilitates the resolution of possible conflicts in the El Manzano de Quintero cove.
• Maintain the quality of the infrastructure and productive equipment necessary to maintain the successful fishing activity in El Manzano Cove; This measure corresponds to a voluntary commitment.
The port expansion is part of the commitments acquired in the Agreement by Valparaíso. This aims to double the cargo transfer capacity and provide world-class service for cruise ships and their passengers. Likewise, the Agreement contemplates the design of the Strategic Coastal Zone Plan, which seeks to design, together with the citizens, a plan for the remodeling and development of the 11 kilometers of Valparaíso’s coastline that, over time, will turn it into the preferred by Buenos Aires residents for their recreational, sporting, educational and cultural activities.
