The bill on odor pollution was sent to the Chamber. The standard modifies Law No. 19,300, on General Environmental Bases, to contemplate that odor pollution will be understood as pollution caused by man or nature, directly or indirectly, consisting of a concentration of odor in the ambient air. , higher than the levels allowed in sector regulations, and which causes discomfort for people.
In this framework, a minimum distance of ten kilometers from the urban radius will be considered for the operation of any industrial, livestock, productive, slaughtering or processing physical structure.
Likewise, agricultural and forestry properties that use animal and/or human waste as fertilizers for their plantations.
The legal text establishes a high priority for complaints coming from communes classified as developing areas that are affected by this pollution.
The project originated in two motions, one of them authored by representative Viviana Delgado (IND). It is also signed by the deputies: Fernando Bórquez (UDI), Felipe Camaño (IND), Marta González () Félix González (IND), Enrique Lee (IND) Karen Medina (PDG), Daniel Melo (PS), Camila Musante ( IND) and Rubén Dario Oyarzo (PDG).
The second motion is authored by deputy Sara Concha (PSC). It has the signatures of the deputies: Jaime Araya (IND), Eduardo Cornejo (UDI), Daniel Melo (PS) José Carlos Meza (P.REP), Francesca Muñoz (PSC), Gloria Naveillan (IND), Hugo Rey (RN) and Marisela Santibáñez (IND).
The regulations also define the category of annoying odors. These will be those likely to cause discomfort to people, affect the environment or one or more of its components, in accordance with established regulations.
Meanwhile, it will be up to the Ministry of the Environment to dictate one or more regulations that establish the criteria for the issuance of standards that regulate the emission of pollutants related to odor and that cause discomfort to people. The odor emission standards that regulate the priority sectors indicated in the Strategy for Odor Management in Chile must be issued within one year from the publication of this law. Finally, this regulation, which will now be debated in the Chamber, seeks to protect the health of the population that resides near, for example, pig farms or fishing enclosures.
Criminal sanctions
In statements to the media Internacional, Viviana Delgado (IND), one of the authors of the bill, which is urgently needed, highlighted the importance of the initiative in the context of the current situation of odor pollution in the country.
In this regard, the parliamentarian first highlighted “the importance and social relevance of this draft Law on Odors, because odor pollution is an urgent issue at the national level, since odor is the second type of pollutant with the most complaints before the Superintendency of the Environment during recent years.”
“The project indicates that odor be specifically considered as a pollutant in the Environmental Bases Law, which will allow the generation of a normative legal statute that, through the powers of the environmental authority, can fine, but also if damage is proven. environmental, to have civil and even criminal responsibilities for the violation of environmental and public health regulations,” he stated.
“However, repair and compensation are the consequences, that is, the cost and penalties to be paid when the damage has already been done, when the neighbors were affected and breathed in the bad odors. The main objective of the Odor Law project is to monitor and establish regulations that regulate, prevent and eradicate this type of episode. As a country we must act preventively and not reactively, when the problem is already unleashed,” he concluded.
Another similar project
The nature of extreme urgency that the Government gave to this bill allowed it to be sent for voting in the room. However, there is another similar project pending in Congress, which dates back to August 2015 and was presented by deputies Daniella Cicardini and Denise Pascal. The initiative “amends Law No. 19,300, on General Environmental Bases, to expressly recognize odor as a polluting agent” and, according to information available on the Chamber’s website, as of April 2, 2019, it has been in the Second Process. Constitutional, waiting to be discussed by the Senate Commission on the Environment and National Assets.
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