“This is an act of transparency that functions as a means of verification for authorities, community and other stakeholders,” the company states.
SQM Online is the new environmental management monitoring platform for SQM’s extraction of industrial water, brine and other information in the Salar de Atacama.
With this, SQM seeks to generate changes in the creation of shared social value, care and respect for people, the environment and communities.
Since August 31, anyone accessing the site can see, for example, the daily data on the amount of brine extracted in accordance with the limits approved by the environmental entity.
Javier Silva, SQM’s Corfo Contract Manager, told the Reporte Minero website: “The periodicity of taking each of these records is governed by the provisions of the Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) in force and the resolutions issued by the Superintendency of the Environment regarding online monitoring systems”.
The executive added: “This
online environmental monitoring system
system, which required an investment of US$1,000,000 for the company, aims to increase the information on environmentally sensitive systems and their surroundings in order to improve knowledge of their
hydrogeological and hydrological dynamics,
and maintain control in case deviations are observed and take preventive and concrete actions to ensure that the system is maintained as agreed upon in the
environmental commitments
“
However, aware of the questions that could be raised about the data and its reliability, Javier Silva assures that audits will be carried out, according to Diario Financiero.
What will you find on the SQM online page?
Daily online information on the amount of brine extracted in accordance with the limits approved by the environmental entity will be published through the web page https://www.sqmsenlinea.com/. Information represented in daily and accumulated indicators of the controls of the established operational rule.
The site also shows indicators on water extraction from each well with environmental authorization in the form of average daily flow, explaining the current limit for each one.
The information is based on the volume extracted from each well, which is recorded every minute.
Additionally, SQM incorporated information on historical levels and, since March 2020, continuous levels according to the latest online monitoring resolution of the Dirección General de Aguas (DGA).
The platform has state-of-the-art technology to report daily water extraction and groundwater levels for each of the five wells with rights approved by the environmental authority.
Regarding environmental control and monitoring, the company assured that it operates on the basis of a robust environmental management system, whose objective is to verify that environmental variables are evolving as planned and to take care of sensitive systems.
To this end, they indicate that biotic variables and at least 225 hydrogeological monitoring points are monitored, and that they continuously provide information on: phreatic levels, surface levels and flows, lagoon area, physicochemical parameters, among others.
Symmetry of information
Although we will have time to know how well SQM’s platform works, Gisma and SIGEA believe that this is the direction in which companies and organizations should move forward, ensuring regulatory compliance in a context of transparency towards all stakeholders and implementing principles of information symmetry, we all observe and have the same information, which allows specialists to focus on analysis and decision making.
ReporteMinero.cl https://www.reporteminero.cl/noticia/noticias/2020/09/sqm-lanza-plataforma-online-que-informa-su-monitoreo-ambiental
