It will be held on August 15 regarding the Environmental Impact Study of the project. Interested parties may register to access the report and present their arguments at the hearing. The depth to be reached during the dredging works will be -7.40 m in the maneuvering area. They will remove 255,000 m³ of sediments.

 

There will be a public hearing for the dredging of the port of Comodoro Rivadavia. It will be held on August 15 regarding the Environmental Impact Study of the work.

 

Interested parties may register to access the report and present their arguments at the hearing. The depth to be reached during the dredging work will be -7.40 m in the maneuvering area. They will remove 255,000 m³ of sediments.

 

The project promoted by the Port Administration of Comodoro Rivadavia Port consists of dredging at the foot of the Ultramar pier and in the port area. The extracted material will then be transported by the vessels in charge of dredging and unloaded at sea, in open waters, in a defined area in the San Jorge Gulf about 6 km away from the port breakwater.

 

The depth to be reached during the dredging tasks will be -7.40 m in the maneuvering area and a level of -10 m with respect to the local zero MOP.

 

The total volume to be dredged is approximately 255,000 m³ of sediments. The purpose of having a safe depth would allow the port’s commercial activity to reach a larger market of medium and large vessels, being also independent of the tide level in a wide time window, and not only at high tide.

 

Environmental Impact

The main objective of the study is to carry out an environmental impact analysis to determine the most significant environmental aspects of the project associated with the actions of the dredging project, in order to provide the necessary mitigation measures to prevent, minimize or compensate for the potential impacts that may be generated during the project.

 

It is worth mentioning that the Port of Comodoro Rivadavia, in order to establish an environmental baseline to adequately assess the potential impacts in terms of the possibility of dispersion of contaminants, turbidity, etc., has requested the Dr. Héctor Zaixso Coastal Development Institute of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, a study of the characterization of the benthos, water column and sediments in the port dredging area and area of influence and the discharge area and vicinity

Tuesday, August 15, Austral Hotel

Within the framework of the technical-administrative procedure of Environmental Impact Assessment, established in Law XI No. 35 and its Regulatory Decree No. 185/09, regarding the Environmental Impact Study of the Comodoro Rivadavia Port Dredging Project, the Undersecretariat of Environmental Regulation and Control called a Public Hearing for Tuesday, August 15, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. in the Punta Borja Room of the Austral Hotel located at 725 Moreno Street, in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia.

 

Anyone interested may access the Environmental Impact Study of the Project, which may be consulted at the headquarters of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Control at Rivadavia Nº 264, 1st floor of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, from Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; or at the web page of said agency.

 

Stages of the project

The project consists of dredging the Ultramar pier foot and the port area of the Comodoro Rivadavia Port. These sectors represent a total estimated area of 143,000 m2, of which approximately 16,000 m2 correspond to the Ultramar dock area and 129,000 m2 to the port area.

 

The Port of Comodoro Rivadavia is an important logistic center for the development of the industrial activity of the San Jorge Gulf basin. This port represents a logistic node for the distribution of general cargo in the region, standing out for having a Free Trade Zone, Oil Terminals, docks for maritime transport, etc. In addition, the port represents a fundamental node for the fishing industry in the region. Its unloadings supply the industrial fishing complex installed in the area.

 

Two alternatives

Two main possibilities or alternatives have been considered to achieve the objective of deepening the port, which are mainly associated with the dredging methodology.

 

The first one is to concentrate the dredging at the foot of the Ultramar dock, ensuring an area close to the foot of the dock, with a depth that guarantees the permanence of the ships in it, but with the nautical requirement that the entrance to the port is only possible at certain high tides, to reach the depth according to the draft of the ships at the entrance or exit. Associated with the dredging, an enclosure is designed in a sector of the port to refine (deposit) the dredged material, since the current enclosures of the port do not have sufficient remaining capacity.

 

As a second possibility, dredging at the foot of the Ultramar dock is considered, as well as dredging of the port area or outer harbor, from the pier to the aforementioned dock. In this case, the characteristics of the work and the magnitude of the dredging volume would generate the need for a larger volume enclosure, which would considerably increase costs, in addition to the increase in costs associated with the larger dredged volume. That is why in this case a dredging methodology is proposed using a suction dredge and disposal of the material in open water. This is the usual dredging methodology in the main ports of the country.

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