Trelew: Argentineans’ southern Patagonia region has turned bright pink in a striking, but frightful phenomenon. Experts blame it on a pesticide used to preserve prawns for export.
According to activists, the color is caused by sodium sulfite, an antibacterial product used in fish factories whose waste is contaminating the Chubut River that feeds the Corfo lagoon and other water sources in the region.
Local residents have long complained about foul smells and other environmental problems surrounding the river and lagoon. ‘Those who should be in control are the ones who authorize the poisoning of people,’ environmental activist Pablo Lada told the media, criticizing the government for the mess.
The lagoon turned pink last week and remained pink on Sunday, said Lada, who lives near the lagoon and about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires.
Federico Restrepo, an environmental engineer and virologist, told the media that the coloration was caused by sodium sulfite in fish waste, which by law, should be treated before being discarded.
There is no recreation in the lagoon, but it receives runoff from the Trelew industrial park and has previously turned fuchsia in color. However, locals are fed up with the situation.
Recently, residents of Rawson, a city bordering Trelew, blocked the streets so trucks carrying processed fish waste could travel through their streets to treatment plants near the city. ‘We get dozens of trucks daily, the residents are getting tired of it,’ said Lada.
Since Rawson was off limits due to the protest, provincial authorities granted factories permission to dispose of their waste in the Corfo lagoon instead.
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Juan Micheloud, environmental control chief for Chubut province, told reporters last week that the reddish color does not cause any damage and will disappear in a few days.
Planning secretary Sebastian de la Vallina of Trelew disagreed: ‘It is impossible to minimize something that serious.’
Fish processing plants that export hake and prawns attract thousands of jobs to Chubut, a province home to about 600,000 people. There are dozens of foreign fishing companies operating in the waters under Argentina’s Atlantic jurisdiction.
‘Fish processing generates work… it’s true. But these are multi-million-dollar profit companies that don’t want to pay freight to take the waste to a treatment plant that already exists in Puerto Madryn, 35 miles away, or build a plant closer,’ said Lada.
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