After having participated a few weeks ago in the Board of Directors of the Santander Environmental Authority (CAS), the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, assured that the environmental license granted for the exploitation of an open-pit coal mine in the municipality of El Carmen de Chucurí, shows alleged inconsistencies in the technical information that gave rise to the grant.
In this sense, and by instruction of the minister, a technical commission made up of the National Authority for Environmental Licenses (UNDERSTAND) and the minenvironment carried out a detailed and in-depth review of the file of the current environmental license that the project has.
The report of the technical commission revealed serious deficiencies, such as the lack of a geotechnical model that would allow understanding how the aquifers will be affected and how the concessionaire would manage the infiltration of water in the mine, among others that are reflected in the concept that is part of the demand.
“We have made the decision to sue this license because, according to the technical commission, it does not comply with environmental standards, in this way we do it via an annulment action and we request precautionary measures to cease its effects, immediately,” said the Minister.
Other inconsistencies is the gap in the definition of the area of influence, a weak environmental characterization was verified, therefore, an uncertainty of impacts, such as the one that would be generated against the populations that live around it.
Additionally, the technical report evidenced alleged breaches of legal provisions that cannot be corrected and therefore, in the opinion of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the license should not have been delivered under the technical conditions of the file, nor under the information delivered by the company Colcco.
