translated from Spanish: Til Til continues to suffer: Environmental Court rejects appeals against controversial Cigri toxic waste project

“Chile’s largest toxic waste filling.” Thus they have qualified from the municipality of Til Til, located in the Metropolitan Region, the project Integral Center of Industrial Waste Management (Cigri) of the company Ciclo, which was approved in 2017 by the Committee of Ministers.
The project has not been without controversy, and has found the rejection of both the inhabitants of the commune, and mayor Nelson Orellana, who at the time claimed that Til Til was becoming the “largest sacrificial zone in the country (since) these fillings s anitarians are a threat to the neighbors of the commune.”
The situation prompted the 11 October of that year, two inhabitants of the municipality, Hugo Enrique Moreno Rozas and Bianca Rojo Astudillo, to file an appeal against the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA), given the questions of the community the process that culminated in the approval of the project.
Five days later, the Communal and Social Council on Environment, Environmental Action and Health, Janet Mena Cortés and Sabina Martínez Zamora, entered the second complaint.
However, both appeals were rejected this first of August by the Second Environmental Tribunal, giving a backto the Cycle initiative (SEE RESOLUTION HERE)
The Desk sent an email to the company Ciclo, to know its position regarding the neighbors’ complaint. At the close of this edition, no response was obtained.
Meanwhile, from the Municipality of Til Til they are analyzing the fault – consisting of more than 150 pages – to issue a pronouncement. However, they already believe that the Environmental Court’s decision “is the maximum arbitrariness”.
With the green light to the project, in Til Til they resent that they continue to be considered the “backyard” of the Metropolitan Region and a virtual “Sacrifice Zone” a few kilometers from the capital. The mayor has claimed that “more than 30 polluting projects of different magnitudes” are already installed in the commune and that is why he has led initiatives such as the articulation of a “Front of Municipalities” victims of environmental pollution.
The controversial ruling
The environmental tribunal’s decision was issued by Ministers Alejandro Ruiz, President(s) Felipe Sabando Del Castillo, and Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo. The sentence was drafted by Minister Ruiz and contemplated preventions by Minister And Minister Sabando.
In short, the document states that it is resolved to “reject claims brought against Exempt Resolution No. 985/2017 of the Committee of Ministers, which rejected administrative complaints against Exempt Resolution No. 9/2017 of the Evaluation Commission of the Metropolitan Region, as stated in the consideration part of this judgment”.
In its analysis of the case, the court concluded that the evaluation of the project was fully in line with law, and that it will not create risks to the health of the population. “Thus, the decision of the Evaluation Commission to authorize the project is lawful, as is the resolution claimed, in order to rule out the existence of risks to the health of the population. Therefore, the concerns raised by the complainants, linked to a possible violation of their right to live in a pollution-free environment based on the existence of risks to the health of the population, have been duly considered in the environmental assessment process lacking the subsequent claims, the complaint should have been rejected by this Court in this regard”.
The judgment also contends that the Cigri project is compatible with the land use established for the area in the Santiago Metropolitan Regulatory Plan, which allows dangerous activities; that there will be a lower affectation of species of fauna, because “this is an area with high anthropic intervention and close to Route 5 North, which was also appreciated by the Court in the personal inspection diligence, so that the tit’s sustained EIA and established in the environmental assessment process. In addition, the competent authority (the SAG) ruled favourably with regard to SBP 146 of the EIP AEC Regulations, approving the measures of controlled disturbance, rescue and relocation proposed by the holder”.
The complainants went to the Santiago Environmental Court after the Committee of Ministers rejected – by decision of the SEA – the administrative complaint they had filed against the environmental rating resolution (RCA) favorable of the project Cigri. While both cases were requested for the Court to annul that decision and to accept its administrative complaint.
Broadly speaking, one group of complainants called for a new environmental impact study (EIA), while the other requested to roll back the evaluation procedure in order to unfavourably qualify the project.
Cycle: Project does not affect the environment
The Cigri project in question is in the folder of the Office of Sustainable Project Management (GPS), an entity installed by the Government of Sebastián Piñera to accelerate projects that are considered priority investments.
The office’s website says the initiative “corresponds to a health infrastructure project for the treatment, disposal and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste, through lines of processes aimed at revaluation, recycling, recovery, treatment and final disposal in safety filler, in accordance with D.S. 148/03 of the Ministry of Health, which approves the Health Regulations on The Management of Hazardous Waste and other applicable standards”.
The Cigri project has a total investment of $85 million and will be installed at the height of kilometer 51 of Route 5 Norte in the sector of Los Ciruelos.
Despite opposition from the inhabitants and the Municipality, the company argues – on its website – that the project does not generate a harmful environmental impact to the community or the environment.
“Strict security measures will be applied in the entry of waste, receiving only those that are authorised. By the type of waste to be received and the treatment to which it will be subjected, Ciclo guarantees its commitment not to affect the quality of life of the population and the environment of the neighboring town of Rungue”.
Likewise, the company guarantees that the project will not emit any annoying odors and will not have liquid effluents, so it will not contaminate surface or groundwater. “100% of the rainwater and treated wastewater will be reused in the internal waste treatment processes.”
“Strict security measures will be applied in the entry of waste. These will be analyzed in advance, in order to design the most suitable treatment for each residue,” they argue.

Original source in Spanish