Overview

Ingeniero White is a town located less than 5 kilometers from Bahía Blanca in the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires, in Argentina. For many years, the city had access to the sea until, in the 1970s, the coast began being privatized for the creation of a mega petrochemical pole. Currently there are dozens of companies that are dedicated to the production of granulated urethane, polyurethane, a polyvinyl chloride and caustic soda, phenol and solvents, among others. Within the framework of the transformation of the territory, the more the petrochemical pole expanded, the more negative impacts occurred on the quality of life and environment of the community. What had been promised to be progress actually brought discharge of effluents into the estuary, chlorine and ammonia leaks, explosions within the companies, changes to the marine flora and fauna, and negative impacts on the health of the local community.