{ "id": "nexus-sen-1-0007-119442", "citation": "Res. 05906-1999 Sala Constitucional", "section": "nexus_decisions", "doc_type": "constitutional_decision", "title_es": "Contaminación del río Cañas por planta procesadora de tilapia", "title_en": "Pollution of the Cañas River by tilapia processing plant", "summary_es": "La Sala Constitucional conoce un recurso de amparo interpuesto por un vecino de Cañas contra el Ministerio de Salud, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA), la Municipalidad de Cañas y la empresa procesadora de tilapia Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A., por la contaminación del río Cañas. La Sala constata que desde 1992 la empresa vertió sus aguas residuales industriales sin tratamiento previo en el sistema lagunar de oxidación de Cañas, diseñado exclusivamente para aguas domésticas, lo que provocó la sobrecarga del sistema y el vertido de aguas contaminadas al río, afectando la salud y el ambiente de las comunidades aguas abajo. La Sala determina que el AyA autorizó la conexión sin estudios técnicos, el Ministerio de Salud suspendió una orden de cierre basándose en criterios económicos y la Municipalidad apoyó la operación por su impacto económico, todos incumpliendo su deber constitucional de garantizar un ambiente sano según el artículo 50 de la Constitución. Se declara con lugar el amparo, se ordena al AyA cesar de inmediato la recepción de aguas residuales de la empresa y se condena solidariamente al Estado, al AyA, a la Municipalidad de Cañas y a la empresa al pago de costas, daños y perjuicios.", "summary_en": "The Constitutional Chamber hears an amparo filed by a resident of Cañas against the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), the Municipality of Cañas, and the tilapia processing company Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A., for polluting the Cañas River. The Chamber finds that since 1992, the company discharged its untreated industrial wastewater into Cañas' oxidation lagoon system, designed exclusively for domestic sewage, overloading the system and causing contaminated water to flow into the river, harming the health and environment of downstream communities. It determines that AyA authorized the connection without technical studies, the Ministry of Health lifted a closure order based on economic considerations, and the Municipality supported the operation due to its economic impact, all in breach of their constitutional duty to guarantee a healthy environment under Article 50 of the Constitution. The amparo is granted, AyA is ordered to immediately stop receiving the company's wastewater, and the State, AyA, the Municipality of Cañas, and the company are jointly ordered to pay costs and damages.", "court_or_agency": "Sala Constitucional", "date": "1999", "year": "1999", "topic_ids": [ "art-50-constitution", "water-law" ], "primary_topic_id": "art-50-constitution", "es_concept_hints": [ "recurso de amparo", "sistema lagunar", "aguas residuales", "artículo 50 Constitución Política", "orden sanitaria", "SETENA", "coadyuvancia", "Defensoría de los Habitantes", "demanda química de oxígeno (DQO)", "demanda biológica de oxígeno (DBO)" ], "concept_anchors": [ { "article": "Art. 50", "law": "Constitución Política" }, { "article": "Art. 285", "law": "Ley General de Salud" }, { "article": "Art. 363", "law": "Ley General de Salud" }, { "article": "Art. 5", "law": "Ley de Construcciones" } ], "keywords_es": [ "contaminación del río Cañas", "planta procesadora de tilapia", "sistema lagunar de oxidación", "aguas residuales industriales", "artículo 50 Constitución Política", "derecho a un ambiente sano", "AyA", "Ministerio de Salud", "Municipalidad de Cañas", "orden sanitaria", "responsabilidad del Estado", "daño ambiental", "costas daños y perjuicios", "Defensoría de los Habitantes", "Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales" ], "keywords_en": [ "Cañas River pollution", "tilapia processing plant", "oxidation lagoon system", "industrial wastewater", "Article 50 Political Constitution", "right to a healthy environment", "AyA", "Ministry of Health", "Municipality of Cañas", "sanitary order", "State responsibility", "environmental damage", "costs and damages", "Ombudsman's Office", "Wastewater Discharge and Reuse Regulation" ], "excerpt_es": "IV.- Debe considerarse que los derechos a la vida y a la salud, así como el derecho a gozar de un ambiente sano, están todos garantizados a nivel fundamental en la Carta Magna, de modo que cualquier criterio económico que se quiera aplicar en un caso concreto debe ceder en importancia ante los primeros. (...) La acción que la Constitución Política impone al Estado frente a los focos de contaminación ambiental es multidireccional y definitivamente activa, absolutamente intolerante frente a situaciones que amenazan o afectan las condiciones ambientales óptimas que están garantizadas por ella misma a los habitantes. Desde esta perspectiva no es permitido a la autoridades públicas hacer concesiones o conceder prórrogas para que se continúe afectando el medio ambiente, aún y cuando ello se haga con miras a traer beneficios económicos a una zona geográfica determinada.", "excerpt_en": "IV.- It must be considered that the rights to life and to health, as well as the right to enjoy a healthy environment, are all guaranteed at a fundamental level in the Magna Carta, so that any economic criterion that one might wish to apply in a specific case must yield in importance to the former. (...) The action that the Political Constitution imposes on the State against sources of environmental pollution is multidirectional and definitively active, absolutely intolerant of situations that threaten or affect the optimal environmental conditions that are guaranteed by it to the inhabitants. From this perspective, public authorities are not permitted to make concessions or grant extensions for the continued harm to the environment, even when this is done with a view to bringing economic benefits to a particular geographic area.", "outcome": { "label_en": "Granted", "label_es": "Con lugar", "summary_en": "The amparo is granted, AyA is ordered to immediately stop receiving the company's wastewater, and the State, AyA, the Municipality of Cañas, and the company are jointly ordered to pay costs and damages.", "summary_es": "Se declara con lugar el amparo, se ordena al AyA cesar de inmediato la recepción de aguas residuales de la empresa y se condena solidariamente al Estado, al AyA, a la Municipalidad de Cañas y a la empresa al pago de costas, daños y perjuicios." }, "pull_quotes": [ { "context": "Considerando IV", "quote_en": "The action that the Political Constitution imposes on the State against sources of environmental pollution is multidirectional and definitively active, absolutely intolerant of situations that threaten or affect the optimal environmental conditions that are guaranteed by it to the inhabitants.", "quote_es": "La acción que la Constitución Política impone al Estado frente a los focos de contaminación ambiental es multidireccional y definitivamente activa, absolutamente intolerante frente a situaciones que amenazan o afectan las condiciones ambientales óptimas que están garantizadas por ella misma a los habitantes." }, { "context": "Considerando IV", "quote_en": "Public authorities are not permitted to make concessions or grant extensions for the continued harm to the environment, even when this is done with a view to bringing economic benefits to a particular geographic area.", "quote_es": "No es permitido a la autoridades públicas hacer concesiones o conceder prórrogas para que se continúe afectando el medio ambiente, aún y cuando ello se haga con miras a traer beneficios económicos a una zona geográfica determinada." }, { "context": "Considerando IV", "quote_en": "It makes no sense to direct state activity towards achieving high levels of employment by sacrificing the purity of the environment, for without the latter, the former is worthless.", "quote_es": "Carece de sentido dirigir la actividad estatal hacia la obtención de altos niveles de empleo sacrificando con ello la pureza del ambiente, pues sin lo segundo lo primero carece de valor." }, { "context": "Considerando IV", "quote_en": "The operation of the mentioned company constitutes an additional source of pollution that affects the right of the inhabitants of the area to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.", "quote_es": "El funcionamiento de la empresa citada constituye un plus de contaminación que afecta el derecho de los habitantes de la zona a gozar de un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado." } ], "cites": [], "cited_by": [], "references": { "internal": [ { "target_id": "nexus-sen-1-0007-1170912", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "" }, { "target_id": "nexus-sen-1-0034-448506", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "" }, { "target_id": "nexus-sen-1-0034-503425", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "" }, { "target_id": "nexus-sen-1-0034-537562", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "" }, { "target_id": "nexus-sen-1-0034-731719", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "" } ], "external": [ { "ref_id": "nexus-sen-1-0007-288076", "url": "", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "", "nexus_id": "sen-1-0007-288076" }, { "ref_id": "nexus-sen-1-0007-341589", "url": "", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "", "nexus_id": "sen-1-0007-341589" }, { "ref_id": "nexus-sen-1-0007-372190", "url": "", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "", "nexus_id": "sen-1-0007-372190" }, { "ref_id": "nexus-sen-1-0034-485951", "url": "", "kind": "related_voto", "label": "", "nexus_id": "sen-1-0034-485951" } ] }, "source_url": "https://nexuspj.poder-judicial.go.cr/document/sen-1-0007-119442", "tier": 2, "_editorial_citation_count": 0, "regulations_by_article": null, "amendments_by_article": null, "dictamen_by_article": null, "concordancias_by_article": null, "afectaciones_by_article": null, "resoluciones_by_article": null, "cited_by_votos": [], "cited_norms": [], "cited_norms_inverted": [], "sentencias_relacionadas": [ "sen-1-0007-1170912", "sen-1-0007-288076", "sen-1-0007-341589", "sen-1-0007-372190", "sen-1-0034-448506", "sen-1-0034-485951", "sen-1-0034-503425", "sen-1-0034-537562", "sen-1-0034-731719" ], "temas_y_subtemas": [], "cascade_only": false, "amendment_count": 0, "body_es_text": "05906\n\nAmparo\n\nFecha: 28/07/1999\n\nExp: 99-003195-007-CO-A\n\nRes: 05906-99\n\nSALA CONSTITUCIONAL DE LA CORTE SUPREMA DE JUSTICIA. San José, a las dieciséis horas quince minutos del veintiocho de julio de mil novecientos noventa y nueve.\n\nRecurso de Amparo establecido por Nombre180543 , con cédula de identidad número CED138290 contra el Ministro de Salud, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, la Municipalidad de Cañas y Nombre182328 Internacional Sociedad Anónima.\n\nRESULTANDO.\n\n1.- Nombre180543 interpone recurso de amparo contra el Ministro de Salud, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, la Municipalidad de Cañas y Nombre182328 Internacional Sociedad Anónima, alegando violación al derecho de los ciudadanos a gozar de un ambiente sano, con fundamento en los siguientes hechos. Señala el recurrente que existen denuncias contra la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., que opera en la Red de Frío en Cañas de Guanacaste, por contaminación de las aguas del río Cañas en esa misma localidad, dado que dicha empresa deposita en las lagunas de tratamiento de Acueductos y Alcantarillados sus residuos sin el debido tratamiento. Dicha contaminación la viene efectuando desde hacer varios años, pero está documentada a partir de 1997 y hasta la fecha. Las citadas lagunas, construidas por la Municipalidad en el año 1958, no están en capacidad técnica o de diseño para tratar las aguas residuales de la citada empresa, las que se caracterizan por contener altos niveles de grasa, sangre, escamas y otros subproductos de pescado provenientes de la planta de procesamiento de tilapia que opera la empresa dicha. Al no tener las lagunas de tratamiento de Acueductos y Alcantarillados la capacidad de regenerar las aguas residuales y negras del cantón de Cañas, las aguas que allí se depositan son lanzadas \"crudas\" al río Cañas, produciéndose una alta contaminación especialmente con materia fecal. Las aguas del río Cañas son utilizadas por la población aguas abajo tanto para el consumo humano en sus diversas variables como para el regadío en la producción agrícola para el consumo humano, amen de que el destino final de las aguas del río es el Golfo de Nicoya donde se ubica una parte importante de la pesca artesanal del país. Señala además que se ha demostrado que el deterioro de la calidad de vida de los pobladores de Cañas está relacionada con el consumo de agua y otros subproductos contaminados. Señala que pese a diversas gestiones realizadas por la Defensoría de los Habitantes respecto al problema de contaminación señalado, al interponer el recurso no se tiene conocimiento de que los responsables directos o indirectos del mismo hayan realizado los actos pertinentes y necesarios para poner fin a la contaminación y para mitigar los daños causados. Hace ver que con el fin de buscar una solución del problema promovió en su despacho una reunión el 9 de marzo de 1999 entre la Defensoría de los Habitantes, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, representantes de las comunidades afectadas y el representante de Commonwealth Development Corporation -propietaria de AquaCorporation S.A.-; en tal oportunidad las partes involucradas se manifestaron en torno a la problemática, los representantes de la compañía admitieron responsabilidad en los hechos denunciados. En relación a la empresa Nombre182328 S.A., señala el recurrente que esta no cuenta con el debido estudio de impacto ambiental, con un plan de manejo de desechos incluidas las aguas residuales, que funciona en terrenos propiedad del Estado que no están diseñados para el procesamiento de pescado, que las descargas que dicha empresa realiza superan los límites de contaminación permisible contenidos en el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales, y que no cuenta con permiso sanitario de funcionamiento actualizado y expedido por el Ministerio de Salud. Respecto del Ministerio de Salud el recurrente señala que ha permitido el funcionamiento de la empresa Nombre182328 al margen de la ley y contra criterios técnicos vigentes, asimismo conociendo la gravedad del problema el ministerio citado favorece a la empresa Nombre182328 y con su inacción permite que se continúe degradando el ambiente y contaminando el río con lo que se afecta directamente la calidad de vida de los vecinos que requieren del agua para satisfacer sus necesidades de consumo. En cuanto al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados su inacción en cuanto a la problemática aludida ha permitido que la citada empresa continúe con la descarga de materias residuales contaminantes al río Cañas afectando la salud de los vecinos del río y lesionando la biodiversidad; asimismo se señala que las aguas residuales de dicha empresa no deberían ser recibidas en las lagunas de estabilización. Por último en cuanto a la Municipalidad de Cañas, esta ha permitido que la empresa Nombre182328 continúe en la actividad ilícita contaminante que realiza incumpliendo la legislación ambiental existente. Pide el recurrente que se declare con lugar el recurso, que se obligue al Ministro de Salud, al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados y a la Municipalidad de Cañas a cumplir con la legislación aplicable al funcionamiento de la empresa Nombre182328 S.A.; que se ordene la paralización del funcionamiento de la citada empresa; que se condene a las partes recurridas al pago de las costas del proceso y de los daños ambientales causados por su acción u inacción. \n\n2.- Mediante resolución de las quince horas cuarenta y nueve minutos del siete de mayo de mil novecientos noventa y nueve se cursó este amparo contra el Ministro de Salud, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, la Municipalidad de Cañas y Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., requiriéndose los informes respectivos.\n\n3.- El Alcalde Municipal de Cañas informa que esa corporación municipal desde el inicio de la problemática ambiental que se plantea ha estado atenta a la elaboración de los estudios técnicos respectivos, y también vigilante de que el Ministerio de Salud, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados y la empresa interesada den cumplimiento a los acuerdos tomados para solventar la situación. Aporta el informante copia de un convenio de fecha 17 de agosto de 1998 suscrito por las diferentes partes involucradas. Señala asimismo que es Acueductos y Alcantarillados quien construyó y tiene a su cargo la operación y mantenimiento de las lagunas de oxidación y del acueducto de la ciudad de Cañas. Reitera que a su representada no se le puede atribuir responsabilidad alguna en los problemas denunciados por el recurrente, sino que las responsabilidades corresponden a otros instituciones, por lo que pide se declare sin lugar el recurso en cuanto se refiere a la Municipalidad de Cañas y se condene en costas al recurrente.\n\n4.- Por su parte los representantes del Comité Local de Defensa de Cañas Nombre144 que el problema de contaminación del río Cañas se debe a la existencia de varias fuentes contaminantes y no sólo a los desechos de la empresa Nombre182328 S.A. como pretende hacerlo ver el recurrente Nombre180543 ; citan como tales agentes contaminantes la existencia de vertederos de chatarra y otras basuras cerca del nacimiento del río Cañas, los vertederos de basura y deshechos orgánicos que los vecinos de la comunidad de Vergel lanzan al río varios kilómetros antes de la ciudad de Cañas, las inundaciones que provocan el desbordamiento de los tanques sépticos de la Dirección21190 ubicada un kilómetro al este del puente sobre el citado río, el zanjo de San Cristóbal Sur que sirve de desagüe a las aguas servidas de los Dirección21191 , y San Cristóbal. Nombre144 que se han realizado obras importantes para solventar el problema ambiental como por ejemplo la inversión de Acueductos y Alcantarillados por sesenta millones de colones para conectar ciento treinta y ocho casas al sistema de tratamiento de aguas, la firma de un contrato de Nombre182328 con Amanco para lograr un límite permisible de sustancias contaminantes mientras se traslada a su nueva planta de proceso.Reconocen los citados representantes que Nombre182328 de instaló en la Red de Frío de Cañas desde 1992 a vista y paciencia de quienes no debieron permitirlo y actualmente se ha consolidado en la comunidad representando fuente de trabajo e ingreso para más de quinientos empleados, quienes ven en peligro su estabilidad económica y emocional pues la interposición de este amparo puede conllevar el cierre de la empresa con lo que se provocaría un caos social. Desde esa perspectiva hacen ver que la empresa interesada ha mostrado buena disposición para solucionar el problema de contaminación. Nombre144 que es imprudente y prematura la interposición de este amparo, pues ya se están realizando medidas para contrarrestar la contaminación.\n\n5.- La Ministra a.i. de Salud informa que en efecto la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. no cuenta con permiso sanitario de funcionamiento ya que ese ministerio ha decidido no renovarlo hasta que cumpla con los requisitos legales y reglamentarios. Señala que mediante orden sanitaria notificada el 14 de agosto de 1998 se anuló el permiso sanitario que tenía la empresa citada y se ordenó su traslado a otro sitio en el que debe contarse con el visto bueno de ubicación y el respectivo permiso sanitario de funcionamiento. Señala que en agosto de 1998 se suscribió en ese ministerio, por parte de la Presidencia Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, el Ministro de Ambiente y Energía, la Municipalidad de Cañas y un representante de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. un acuerdo mediante el que se otorgó a la empresa un plazo hasta el 3 de setiembre de 1998 para que presentara una propuesta de modificación para las lagunas de oxidación de Cañas de modo que se cumpliera con el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas, así como el plazo de dieciséis meses más para que la empresa construyera una nueva planta. La empresa presentó la propuesta respectiva mediante memorial GGYB102/98 de dos de setiembre de 1998, en la que se contiene el planteamiento para el tratamiento de las aguas residuales de la ciudad de Cañas, propuesta que incluye medidas coordinadas con el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados; tales medidas conllevaron una inversión económica superior a los cinco millones de colones y un aumento en los costos de operación de aproximadamente doce millones de colones; no obstante en ese memorial la empresa reconoció que la mejor solución era la construcción de una nueva planta física la que estaría lista en los dieciséis meses acordados. Señala la Viceministra de Salud que dada la actitud de la empresa, de esforzarse por el cumplimiento de los ordenamientos sanitarios, ese ministerio consideró oportuno dejar sin efecto la orden de cierre de la empresa y admitir el otorgamiento de un plazo razonable para la implementación de las medidas sanitarias que dieran solución definitiva al problema planteado: dicho plazo se fijó en tres meses conforme se señala en oficio UAC-2018-98 de veintinueve de abril de mil novecientos noventa y nueve. Señala que la actuación administrativa responde a los principios de racionalidad y razonabilidad contenidos en el numeral 216 de la Ley General de la Administración Pública.Hace ver que ese ministerio no sólo no ha otorgado prórroga al permiso sanitario de funcionamiento sino que se suspendió el que estaba vigente. Se ha dado seguimiento a la problemática, siendo que incluso durante los días 18 y 19 de marzo de 1999 se realizó una inspección sanitaria a la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales, a la comunidad de Hotel, Dirección21192 , a la planta de tratamiento de Quebrada San Cristóbal y a la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., pudiéndose constatar que esta última empresa ha realizado mejoras en el sistema de tratamiento de sus aguas residuales con lo que ha logrado mejorar la calidad del agua del afluente de vertido a la red de alcantarillado sanitario: además se hace ver que una vez lo apruebe el Ministerio de Salud, se procederá por medio de la compañía Amanco a la instalación de un equipo para el tratamiento de las aguas residuales lo que permitirá cumplir con el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales. Se señala asimismo que la Unidad de Proceso de Control del Ambiente Humano mediante oficio CAH.080-99 está girando instrucciones a las autoridades locales para que vía orden sanitaria soliciten a la empresa mencionada varias acciones a tomar. Se concluye que el problema del manejo de las aguas residuales originadas en la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ha sido debidamente atendido por el Ministerio de Salud, y que las decisiones que se han tomado se enmarcan dentro de la razonabilidad y racionalidad propias de la función administrativa. Pide que se declare sin lugar el presente recurso de amparo.\n\n6.- El presbítero José Herrera Salas, en representación de la Comisión Diocesana de Pastoral Social de la Diócesis de Tilarán, presentó escrito apoyando la interposición del presente amparo, pues considera que es una denuncia legítima de la problemática de contaminación de ríos en la provincia de Guanacaste.\n\n7.- Alejandro Batalla Bonilla en su calidad de apoderado especial judicial de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. informa, en fecha 17 de mayo de 1999, que desde el año 1986 esa empresa inició un novedoso proyecto de cultivo de tilapias en las afueras de la ciudad de Cañas, provincia de Guanacaste, aprovechando para ello la infraestructura del Distrito de Riego Arena que recién se había culminado. Durante los primeros años de ensayo y adaptación la fase de procesamiento del pescado se realizaba en San José pero en 1992 se tomó la decisión de instalar la planta de procesamiento cerca de la finca de producción. Es así como aprovechando que los edificios de la Red de Frío en Cañas se negoció con su concesionario, Consorcio Poder del Mar S.A., la instalación de la planta de proceso en ese sitio: con tal finalidad se obtuvieron los permisos del Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería y del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) para tomar el agua necesaria y para verter las aguas servidas en el sistema de alcantarillado sanitario. Señala el informante que si bien es cierto en 1992 la planta debido a la cantidad de tilapia que procesaba diariamente lograba cumplir con los parámetros exigidos por AyA, ante el aumento de la producción operado en 1996/1997 y la promulgación del Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales publicado en la Gaceta del 19 de julio de 1997 la empresa quedó en situación de incumplimiento de los parámetros exigidos por la nueva legislación: ante ello se concluyó que la única salida viable a la problemática era la construcción de una planta nueva.Es así como uno de los socios de Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. decidió hacer la inversión para la construcción de una nueva planta, lo que significa un aporte de entre tres y cuatro millones de dólares, formándose la empresa Terrapez S.A. para tales efectos. La empresa Terrapez S.A. adquirió en junio de 1998 dos fincas en las afueras de Cañas con la finalidad de construir ahí la nueva planta de procesamiento: así con una inversión de ciento cincuenta y ocho mil novecientos treinta y seis dólares se adquirieron las fincas del partido de Guanacaste matrículas Placa35198 y Placa35199 con una medida total conjunta de más de veintiocho hectáreas. El 11 de agosto de 1998 se suscribió un contrato de servicios profesionales con la empresa Franz Sauter y Asociados S.A., para el diseño del anteproyecto, obtención de los permisos preliminares, coordinación del Estudio de Impacto Ambiental, trámites ante la SETENA, elaboración del diseño civil, eléctrico y mecánico, así como la confección de los planos constructivos para la nueva planta industrial para el proceso y empaque de tilapia. Asimismo se contrató a la empresa islandesa Meka Ingeniering para que asesore en el diseño conceptual de la citada planta. Por otra parte el 29 de abril de 199 se suscribió un contrato con la empresa Amanco para la construcción de dos plantas de tratamiento de agua bajo la modalidad llave en mano, una de ellas destinada a la actual planta de Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ubicada en la Red de Frío y la segunda para la nueva planta de procesamiento en terrenos de Terrapez S.A. Con la finalidad de llevar a cabo el estudio de impacto ambiental respectivo, la empresa Terrapez S.A. contrató a la empresa Desarrollos en Ecología, Paisajismo, Planificación, Arquitectura y Turismo S.A., estudio que al rendirse el informe había sido ya presentado a la Setena. Por su parte la Municipalidad de Cañas, el Ministerio de Salud y el Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo han otorgado los permisos respectivos para la ubicación de la nueva planta de proceso, la Municipalidad de Cañas ha autorizado el movimiento de tierra respectivo y la empresa Franz Sauter y Asociados próximamente va a adjudicar la licitación que ha promovido para la contratación de la empresa que va a construir la planta. Se informa asimismo que a partir del mes de abril del año 2000 la nueva planta iniciará sus funciones.Señala el informante que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ha promovido el desarrollo de una zona deprimida como lo es Cañas. Actualmente trabajan para dicha empresa en forma directa 475 personas de las cuales 250 trabajan en la planta de proceso, la mayoría mujeres jefas de hogar; además genera mil quinientos puestos de trabaja indirectos, paga anualmente quinientos millones de colones en planillas y hace pagos anuales a proveedores, empresas privadas e instituciones públicas por un monto de mil quinientos millones de colones. Además existe interés en que parceleros independientes se dediquen al cultivo de la tilapia para aprovechar la capacidad de la nueva planta procesadora. En cuanto a los hechos referidos en el amparo, señala el informante que la empresa no es responsable de la contaminación del río Cañas y de las enfermedades que están padeciendo los vecinos, ya que esa ciudad no tiene una planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales residenciales por lo que el alcantarillado sanitario desemboca en unas lagunas de estabilización cuyo afluente desemboca en el río Cañas: el problema de esas lagunas es que el sistema de alcantarillado sanitario recibe no sólo las aguas negras residenciales sino también las aguas pluviales, por lo que las lagunas se desbordan y las aguas llegan sin ningún tratamiento al río Cañas. En consecuencia la aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. no tienen nada que ver con el diseño inadecuado de las lagunas. Se informa que una vez el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados hizo de conocimiento que las aguas residuales de la empresa quedaron fueron los márgenes autorizados, se iniciaron una serie de trabajos para mejorar la calidad del afluente vertido al sistema de alcantarillado. Así se instalaron una serie de mallas y parrillas en el interior de la planta, se contrató personal adicional, se implementaron rutinas de limpieza y filtrado del agua; en 1998 se implementó el sistema de tanque de aireación (DAF) para separar grasa y proteína del agua, y en enero de 1999 se inició el proceso de separación del agua de la sangre por medio de coagulación y sedimentación: tales acciones lograron reducir en un 50% la carga contaminante de la demanda química de oxígeno y de la demanda biológica de oxígeno, y dentro de ese contexto de buscar la solución al problema es que se decidió la construcción de una nueva planta de proceso por medio de la sociedad Terrapez S.A. Señala el informante que en agosto de 1998 la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. promovió una reunión entre el Ministro de Salud, el Presidente Ejecutivo del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, un representante del Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, la Presidenta del Concejo Municipal de Cañas, con la finalidad de llegar a una solución al problema de las aguas residuales de la empresa y de la falta de capacidad de las lagunas de AyA. En esa oportunidad se suscribió un convenio mediante el que la empresa se comprometía a proponer una solución al problema en el término de quince días, y si la solución propuesta era factible se daría un plazo de dieciséis meses para la construcción de la nueva planta. Dentro de tales plazos se hizo una propuesta a Nombre5630 que consistía no sólo en el mejoramiento sustancial de las aguas residuales, sino en la compra y operación de aireadores, instalaciones eléctricas; dicha institución formuló una contrapropuesta que significara una solución permanente al problema, la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. la aceptó en el sentido de que esta última se comprometía a adquirir cinco hectáreas de terreno contiguo a las actuales lagunas, pero no se pudo materializar debido a que el propietario aumentó exageradamente el precio del inmueble; se acordó entonces que Nombre5630 procedería a la expropiación de los terrenos y la empresa mencionada se encargaría de la construcción de la laguna; el proceso expropiatorio se inició, se hizo la publicación respectiva en la Gaceta del 23 de febrero de 1999, y la empresa informante contrató a la empresa CAVESA para el movimiento de veinte mil metros cúbicos de tierra para construir la laguna mencionada. Por otra parte, como se mencionó antes, señala el apoderado de la empresa recurrida que ya se contrató con la empresa Amanco la instalación de un sistema de tratamiento de aguas residuales, el que estará operando a partir del 17 de junio de 1999: esto pues pese a los esfuerzos de la empresa no ha sido posible cumplir con los mínimos establecido en el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales. Hace ver el informante que es cierto que las lagunas del Nombre5630 en Cañas, construidas en 1958, no están en capacidad de recibir las aguas de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., pero que tampoco están en capacidad de recibir las aguas de la ciudad, por lo que el vertido de las aguas de la empresa no es el factor principal ni esencial del mal funcionamiento de las lagunas. Señala que la contaminación del río Cañas tiene varias causas, por lo que no es sólo la actividad de la empresa la que ocasiona el problema denunciado. En cuanto a la existencia de los estudios de impacto ambiental, se informa que cuando la empresa inició sus operaciones tal requisito no existía, pero que actualmente el estudio ya se hizo y está presentado a la Setena. Se ha presentado asimismo a las autoridades del Ministerio de Salud un plan de gestión ambiental que incluye lo relativo al manejo de los desechos sólidos. Es asimismo cierto que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A, funciona en la Red de Frío del Ministerio de Hacienda, pero lo hace bajo un contrato que firmó con la empresa concesionaria Consorcio Poder del Mar S.A. No es cierto que la empresa recurrida carezca de permiso del Ministerio de Salud, ya que ese ministerio ha otorgado a partir del 29 de abril de 1999 un plazo de tres meses para cumplir con las exigencias del decreto referente al Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Industriales, de manera que se cuenta con autorización de funcionamiento hasta la fecha establecida. Por lo anterior, dado que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ha actuado de manera responsable para dar cumplimiento cabal a las exigencias y requisitos propios de su operación, pide se declare sin lugar el recurso por prematuro, dado que existen plazos vigentes dentro de los que se dará cumplimiento a tales aspectos.\n\n8.- El Presidente Ejecutivo del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados informa que a su representada le corresponde controlar la calidad de las aguas que la población vierte al alcantarillado sanitario. Desde hace algún tiempo se ha conectado al sistema de oxidación de Cañas una planta procesadora de tilapia, la que vierte allí sus desechos líquidos: hace ver que no es conveniente que tal tipo de industria se conecte a un sistema lagunar cercano a una ciudad pues la proteína fresca de sus residuos al ser depositada sin tratamiento previo libera olores desagradables, además de que se afecta la eficiencia lagunar. El sistema de tratamiento de aguas de Cañas fue diseñado para tratar exclusivamente aguas residuales de rigen doméstico y no así los desechos de industrias cárnicas. Por otra parte, debido a la promulgación de nueva normativa, el afluente actual del sistema lagunar no cumple con los requisitos que exige el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales. Debido a denuncias de los usuarios que hacían ver la problemática de la evacuación y tratamiento de las aguas residuales de Cañas, en fecha 11 de agosto de 1998 se tomó una resolución mediante la que se cesó de inmediato la descarga de lodos provenientes de tanques sépticos en los alcantarillados sanitarios y sistemas lagunares de la región Chorotega, así como la recepción de las aguas residuales provenientes del procesamiento industrial de tilapia por parte de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. Habida cuenta de que esa empresa se comprometió con el Ministerio de Salud, el Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía y Acueductos y Alcantarillados a presentar una propuesta de modificación al uso de las lagunas de oxidación, esa Presidente Ejecutiva mediante resolución de las quince horas del once de agosto de 1998 accedió a ampliar el plazo de cese de recepción de las aguas residuales, con el fin de analizar la propuesta de la empresa. El Presidente de la Junta Directiva de Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. interpuso recurso de revocatoria el 17 de agosto de 1998 contra el acto de la Presidencia Ejecutiva de AyA, alegando que tiene mas de seis años de verter aguas residuales en el sistema lagunar de Cañas y que además no se había concluido de modo suficiente que dicha empresa incumplía el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales: tal recurso de acogió por llevar razón el recurrente.Señala el informante que personeros del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados han mantenido constantes reuniones con representantes de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., con el fin de buscar alternativas de solución a la problemática planteada, siendo que dentro de ese contexto esa institución se ha comprometido a ampliar y mejorar la existente laguna de oxidación, para lo que se están realizando los trámites administrativos licitatorios respectivos. Pide en consecuencia se declare sin lugar el recurso.\n\n9.- Mediante escrito de fecha 26 de mayo de 1999, visible a folio 570, quienes dicen ser miembros del Comité \"Proyecto Ríos Limpios\" de la Pastoral Social de la Diócesis de Tilarán, ratifican la fundamentación del presente amparo. Nombre144 que en los barrios de Cañas existen diversos casos de personas que sufren enfermedades relacionadas con la contaminación de las lagunas de oxidación de esa localidad. Piden que se le ponga fin a esa dañina contaminación y que se hagan valer los derechos de los ciudadanos.\n\n10.- Mediante escritos de folios 573 y 574, de fechas 26 y 16 de mayo de 1999 respectivamente, vecinos de la comunidad de Cañas, manifiestan su apoyo a la interposición de este amparo. Nombre144 que desde hace mucho tiempo sufren los problemas de contaminación ocasionados por malos olores y rebalses de las lagunas de oxidación de esa localidad, problemática que atribuyen a la contaminación que genera la operación de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., la que descarga sus desechos industriales sin tratamiento alguno. Nombre144 que las instalaciones de la empresa no cuentan con una planta de tratamiento de desechos líquidos, desechos que son vertidos sin tratamiento alguno en las lagunas de tratamiento de aguas negras. Hacen ver que está acreditado que los desechos de pescado son incompatibles con el sistema lagunar diseñado para tratar aguas negras, por lo que la actividad de la citada empresa ha provocado niveles de contaminación orgánica altísimos, y niveles enormes de coliformes fecales. Esa situación es grave dado que pocos kilómetros aguas abajo del río Cañas, existen comunidades rurales como la Libertad y barrio Hotel que suplen sus necesidades domésticas con esas aguas, lo que ha causado enfermedades serias, siendo que incluso en agosto de 1998 una de tales comunidades sufrió un brote de hepatitis A. Nombre144 que han existido múltiples advertencias hacia la empresa para que dé el tratamiento adecuado a sus desechos, pero que pese a existir una orden del Ministerio de Salud en agosto de 1998 para cerrar las operaciones, es tanto el poder económico que el Ministro, actuando contra las recomendaciones técnicas, suspendió la orden sanitaria. Solicitan que se ordene a la empresa recurrida el respeto a las leyes nacionales, y se reconozca el derecho de los habitantes a no enfermarse a causa de la contaminación que genera la operación de la recurrida. \n\n11.- Mediante escrito de fecha 30 de mayo de 1999, visible a folio 588, la Defensora de los Habitantes de la República, presenta coadyuvancia en favor del recurrente con base en los siguientes argumentos.Esa Defensoría en atención a la denuncia presentada por el señor Nombre182329 , siguió el expediente 634-23-98, emitiéndose el informe final que fue comunicado a las autoridades responsables mediante notas DHR-9901057-99, DHR-9901055-99, DHR-9901054-99, DHR-9901059-99 y DHR-9901056-99, todas de fecha 28 de enero de 1999.En dicha investigación se comprobó el problema de contaminación del río Cañas debido al mal funcionamiento del \"sistema lagunar\" para tratamiento de las aguas negras y servidas urbanas de esa ciudad, cuya principal responsabilidad recae sobre las autoridades del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados y del Ministerio de Salud, ya que junto con la Municipalidad de Cañas han tolerado situaciones irregulares que han sido constatadas. La problemática planteada debe analizarse en forma integral, interrelacionando aspectos tales como el uso del suelo, los esquemas productivos industriales, agroindustriales y agrícolas, la expansión urbana, el abastecimiento de agua potable para el consumo humano, las necesidades de riego, transporte y alimentación y la preservación de la biodiversidad de los diferentes ecosistemas. La contaminación de las aguas superficiales de ríos y quebradas tiene el agravante de que traslada los agentes contaminantes al medio marino.El problema de contaminación del río Cañas es un claro ejemplo de lo anterior. El sistema lagunar del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados utilizado en la ciudad de Cañas no es acorde al desarrollo urbanístico actual, y a ello debe agregarse que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., que se dedica al procesamiento de la tilapia, se encuentra operando sin contar con un sistema adecuado de tratamiento de las aguas residuales, por lo que las deposita en dicho sistema lagunar, provocando la insuficiencia del sistema y contaminando el río con residuos de tilapia, aceite, sangre y otros. Señala la codyuvancia de la Defensoría que según análisis químicos realizados por el Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados en la planta de la empresa, desde 1994 y hasta noviembre de 1998, mencionada se superan los parámetros contenidos en el Decreto Ejecutivo 26042-S-MINAE que es el Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales, especialmente en relación con la demanda química de oxígeno (se permite 1000 mg/L y el resultado fue de 1604 mg/L), la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno (se permite 300mg/L y el resultado fue de 834 mg/L), nivel de grasas y aceites (el nivel máximo es de 100 y el resultado fue de 1114) y los sólidos suspendidos (se permite un nivel máximo de 500 mg/L y el resultado fue de 1221 mg/L). Se cita además un informe de fecha 5 de agosto de 1998 del Dr.Edgar González Contreras, asesor de la Presidente Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, en el que se menciona que la disminución de la eficiencia del sistema lagunar de Cañas coincide con el inicio de la operación de la planta procesadora de tilapia.\n\nHace ver la Defensoría que la normativa aplicable al caso, en concreto el artículo 132 de la Ley de Conservación de la Fauna Silvestre, el numeral 65 de la Ley Orgánica del Ambiente y el artículo 285 y siguientes de la Ley General de Salud, es coincidente en que debe prohibirse a toda persona física o jurídica la contaminación de las aguas superficiales, subterráneas y marítimas territoriales, en forma directa o indirecta, por medio de la descarga de aguas negras o residuales, de modo que se conviertan en un peligro para la salud de las personas, la fauna terrestre y acuática, por lo que debe exigirse a cada industria la implementación de un sistema adecuado de tratamiento de las aguas residuales. En consecuencia, el Ministerio de Salud, pese a haber concluido después de la inspección de 6 de julio de 1998 que la industria no podía funcionar en el lugar donde se encuentra, no ejecutó la medida especial de clausura contemplada en el numeral 363 de la Ley General de Salud. Asimismo el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, como responsable de la planta de tratamiento de aguas negras de Cañas estaba en la obligación de mantenerla en buen estado, por lo que no debió de haber aceptado recibir aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ya que esta no tiene un sistema de tratamiento adecuado y ajustado a la normativa vigente.: en consecuencia en criterio de la Defensoría, Nombre5630 ha sido tolerante de una situación de contaminación en demérito del servicio de tratamiento de las aguas residuales urbanas de la población de Cañas. Por otra parte señala la Defensoría que la Municipalidad de Cañas debió haber tenido una participación más activa en garantizar la protección de los recursos naturales de la comunidad, tal y como lo señala el numeral primero de la Ley de Construcciones. Concluye la Defensoría señalando que si bien es cierto la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ha presentado una propuesta de traslado de la planta procesadora de tilapia, y el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados se encuentra ampliando y mejorando el sistema lagunar de tratamiento de aguas residuales urbanas del cantón de Cañas, es preocupante que mientras ello no se concrete, se van a mantener constantes los índices de contaminación ya verificados en las aguas del río Cañas.\n\nRedacta el Magistrado Arguedas Ramírez, y;\n\nCONSIDERANDO.\n\nI.- Luego de analizar el recurso, los informes rendidos, y los documentos aportados, estima la Sala que deben considerarse los siguientes hechos para resolver adecuadamente el asunto: a-) Que el sistema lagunar de Cañas fue construido a mediados de la década de los años setenta, con la finalidad de depurar las aguas residuales domésticas y carece de la capacidad para recibir y tratar adecuadamente los desechos y aguas residuales propios de actividades industriales o agroindustriales: las aguas ya tratadas se descargan a su vez por canal abierto en el río Cañas, de cuyo cauce se toman aguas para varias actividades como la irrigación de cultivos, entre otras, . (ver copia del informe de evaluación del sistema lagunar de Cañas elaborado por el Ing.José Miguel Ramírez Corrales visible a folio 18 y siguientes, copia del informe \"Análisis del manejo de las aguas residuales de la industria y de la ciudad de Cañas\" elaborado por la empresa Consultores en Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria de folio 245 y siguientes, así como copia del informe del Dr.Edgar González Contreras, Asesor de la Presidente Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, de folio 685 a 689 de este legajo). b-) Que mediante oficio de fecha 16 de octubre de 1991, personeros del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados dieron la autorización respectiva para que la empresa Nombre182328 utilizara la red de alcantarillado sanitario para verter las aguas servidas resultantes del proceso y destace de tilapia: que dicha autorización se dio sin mediar ningún estudio técnico que la avalara. (ver fotocopia de folio 341, y recomendaciones de la Evaluación del Sistema Lagunar de Cañas llevada a cabo por el Lic. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, visible en fotocopias de folios 18 a 26 especialmente el folio 25 de este legajo). c-) Que a partir del año 1992 la empresa Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A. inició la operación de la planta de procesamiento de tilapia, propiamente en las instalaciones de la Red de Frío en Cañas, provincia de Guanacaste ( ver informe de la citada empresa de folios 331 a 337). d-) Que el sistema de disposición de las aguas residuales de la planta de procesamiento de tilapia operada por la empresa citada, desde el inicio de las operaciones, no incluyó la existencia de una planta de tratamiento que permitiera que la calidad del afluente hacia el sistema de alcantarillado no afectara el buen funcionamiento del sistema lagunar de Cañas, lo que posibilitó que por largo tiempo residuos contaminantes se descargaran a su vez en las aguas del río del mismo nombre. (ver informe final de la Defensoría de los Habitantes, referente al expediente de esa dependencia 0634-23-98 visible en fotocopias de los folios 720 a 734, como copia del informe del Dr.Edgar González Contreras, Asesor de la Presidente Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, de folio 685 a 689). e-) Con posterioridad al inicio de las operaciones de la planta procesadora de tilapia, decayeron notablemente los niveles de eficiencia del sistema lagunar de tratamiento de aguas de la ciudad de Cañas, detectándose en evaluaciones efectuadas entre los años 1994 y 1998 por el Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, que existían excesos respecto de los parámetros autorizados, especialmente en cuanto a la demanda química de oxígeno, la demanda bioquímica de oxígeno, niveles de grasas, aceites y sólidos suspendidos: dichos niveles parecen ir en aumento mostrando números sumamente elevados para noviembre de 1998. (ver escrito de coadyuvancia de la Defensoría de los Habitantes de folio 588 y siguientes, fotocopias del informe del Dr.Edgar González Contreras, Asesor de la Presidente Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, de folio 685 a 689, así como copia de la resolución 252-98-TAA del Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo de folio 795 y siguientes). f-) Que en evaluación efectuada en fecha 11 de febrero de 1997, por la Sección de Aguas Residuales del Proceso de Calidad del Agua del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, sobre la descarga principal de la planta procesadora de tilapia, se reportó presencia de grasa, escamas, sangre y pedazos de pellejos de pescado en el cenicero de conexión, advirtiéndose en esa oportunidad la existencia de otra descarga de aguas con sangre en otro sector y que llega hasta el alcantarillado; se concluyó en esa oportunidad que la descarga de la procesadora de tilapia no cumple con los límites máximos permisibles para ser vertidos en el alcantarillado sanitario de AyA; los límites máximos son de la demanda biológica de oxígeno (DBO) 300 mg/L, de la demanda química de oxígeno (DQO) es de 1000 mg/L y de sólidos suspendidos es de 150 mg/L, en tanto que los valores cuantificados en la evaluación son respectivamente 1000 mg/L, 11600 mg/L y 338 mg/L; se recomendó en dicha evaluación no aceptar conexiones de industrias cárnicas, aún cuando cumplan los límites máximos de DBO y de DQO, ya que los sistemas del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados deben ser prevalentemente para tratar aguas residuales domésticas. (ver fotocopias de la citada evaluación de folios 18 a 26). g-) Que mediante resolución de las quince horas del once de agosto de 1998 la Presidencia Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA), por los fundamentos que en ella se exponen, dispuso cesar la recepción de las aguas residuales provenientes del procesamiento industrial de tilapia por parte de Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., concediendo un plazo de ocho días a partir de la notificación para hacer efectiva la decisión: en virtud de recurso interpuesto por la citada empresa, mediante resolución de las dieciséis horas del diecisiete de agosto de ese mismo año se dispuso hacer efectiva la citada medida hasta el día 3 de setiembre de 1998. (ver informe del Presidente Ejecutivo de Nombre5630 de folio 497 y siguientes, y copia de resoluciones de folios 522 a 525 y 528 a 530). h-) Mediante orden sanitaria notificada en fecha 14 de agosto de 1998, el Ministerio de Salud ordenó suspender el procesamiento y empacado de tilapias dentro del plazo de quince días, así como proceder a trasladar de lugar la planta procesadora misma, para lo que se concedió el plazo de tres meses; contra esa orden sanitaria interpuso recurso de revocatoria la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.; posteriormente en virtud de acuerdo logrado el 17 de agosto de 1998, en presencia de la Diputada Irene Urpí entre el Ministro de Salud, la Presidencia Ejecutiva del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, el Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, la Municipalidad de Cañas y un representante de la empresa citada se acordó otorgar a esta última un plazo hasta el 3 de setiembre de 1998 para que presentara una propuesta de modificación de las lagunas de oxidación de Cañas, de modo de que en caso de ser admisible la propuesta se concediera un plazo adicional de 16 meses para su implementación y para la construcción de una nueva planta de proceso de tilapia: en consecuencia mediante oficio DM-646-98 del primero de octubre de 1998 el Ministerio de Salud decidió cancelar la orden de cierre decretada contra la empresa. (ver copia de oficio UPC-CES-146-98 de folio 35, copia del acuerdo suscrito a folios 127 y 128, informe de la Ministra de Salud a.i. de folio 306 y siguientes, copia de oficio UPC-CAH-682-99 de folio 316 a 320, copia de orden sanitaria de folio 327, así como informe de Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. visible del folio 331 al 337). i-) Que la Municipalidad de Cañas mediante carta pública de fecha 14 de agosto de 1998 suscrita por el Presidente y el Alcalde Municipal, dirigida a los ministerios de Ambiente y Energía, Salud, al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, considerando que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ha colaborado en forma importante en mejorar el nivel de vida de los pobladores de esa zona, que representa una importante fuente de ingresos a los vecinos y de divisas al erario público, y tomando en cuenta que dicha empresa recibió de parte del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados una notificación en el sentido de que no se permitiría más el depósito de las aguas residuales de la empresa en la laguna de oxidación de Cañas, lo que conlleva la paralización de la empresa, acordó apoyar a la citada empresa para que continúe las operaciones en el cantón de Cañas, y deplorar la actitud de grupos comunales y prensa amarillista que han sobredimensionado el problema existente. (ver copia de la citada carta a folios 238 y 239.) j-) Asimismo la Municipalidad de Cañas, en sesión 70-99 del 19 de abril de 1999 acordó por unanimidad apoyar las gestiones que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. realiza para operar en las instalaciones de la Red de Frío en ese cantón, mientras se realiza el traslado definitivo a una nueva planta de proceso. (ver fotocopia de folio 216). k-) Que mediante oficio UPC-PSF-0514-99 del 29 de abril de 1999, la Unidad de Permisos y Controles del Ministerio de Salud otorgó a la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. un plazo de tres meses para que se implementaran las medidas necesarias para resolver definitivamente los problemas sanitarios generados por la operación de la planta procesadora de tilapia. (ver informe de la Viceministra de Salud de folios 306 a 310, y copia de oficio de folio 455). l-) Pese a que mediante oficio número ACT-SC-185-99 de 7 de mayo de 1999, el Jefe de la Oficina Subregional en Cañas del Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía, hace ver que para entonces la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. ya no vertía sus aguas en la laguna de oxidación sino que todos los desechos se recolectan y se transportan hasta una finca de la empresa donde son tratados en una laguna de oxidación de la planta procesadora, existen documentos aportados por el recurrente se desprenden datos en otro sentido, pues según se colige de las bitácoras de observaciones afectadas en las lagunas de oxidación de Cañas durante el mes de abril de 1999 -la última anotación que se aporta es del 21 de abril de este año- para finales de ese mes todavía se recolectaron en el sitio pellejos y tripas de tilapia. (ver fotocopias de bitácoras de trabajo en el sistema lagunar de Cañas de folios 103 a 108, y fotocopia de oficio visible a folio 794).\n\nII.- En el presente amparo se plantea la temática de la interrelación entre el desarrollo de actividades productivas, en este caso el procesamiento de tilapia para la exportación, y el respeto al ambiente. Dentro de ese contexto se reclama por el recurrente la posición que frente a esa problemática han mantenido la empresa productora, el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, el Ministerio de Salud y la Municipalidad de Cañas.\n\nIII.- Como se desprende de la relación de hechos del considerando trasanterior, la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., que se dedica a la producción y procesamiento de tilapia para la exportación, inició en el año 1992 sus operaciones en las instalaciones de la Red de Frío de Cañas, ubicada en ese cantón de la provincia de Guanacaste. Para iniciar sus operaciones fue autorizada, sin ningún estudio técnico previo, por el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados para verter sus aguas residuales en el sistema de alcantarillado que tiene como destino inicial el sistema de lagunas de oxidación de Cañas, sistema que desagua en el río del mismo nombre y cuyas aguas desembocan en el Golfo de Nicoya.Una vez iniciada la operación de la planta procesadora de tilapia, el sistema lagunar de Cañas, que estaba diseñado exclusivamente para el tratamiento de las aguas residuales de origen doméstico, bajó notablemente sus niveles de eficiencia, detectándose en mediciones efectuadas entre los años 1994 y 1998 elevados niveles de las demandas biológica y química de oxígeno que ingresan al sistema, lo que indica una sobrecarga de la laguna, resultando además que la carga contaminante de dicha planta es muy superior a la de la población de Cañas cubierta con el alcantarillado sanitario que descarga en la laguna.Si bien es cierto existen otras varias causas contaminantes del río Cañas, como bien lo hace ver la empresa recurrida Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., no puede obviarse el hecho de que el funcionamiento de la planta procesadora de tilapia es un elemento contaminante más que agrava la situación existente. Frente a esa problemática el Ministerio de Salud a mediados del mes de agosto de 1998 dispuso mediante orden sanitaria la suspensión de la actividad de procesamiento y empaque de tilapia y el traslado de la planta procesadora a otro sitio que cumpliera las exigencias sanitarias. No obstante con posterioridad a una reunión sostenida pocos días después con representantes de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados y la Municipalidad de Cañas, ese ministerio dispuso dejar sin efecto la citada orden de cierre.Por su parte la Municipalidad de Cañas, pese a considerar la existencia de problemas de contaminación ambiental, con sus acciones y comunicados ha apoyado decididamente la operación de la planta procesadora de tilapia, considerando primordialmente la importancia que esa operación reviste para el desarrollo económico de la zona. \n\nIV.- Debe considerarse que los derechos a la vida y a la salud, así como el derecho a gozar de un ambiente sano, están todos garantizados a nivel fundamental en la Carta Magna, de modo que cualquier criterio económico que se quiera aplicar en un caso concreto debe ceder en importancia ante los primeros. Desde esa perspectiva, el ejercicio de los derechos al trabajo y a desarrollar una actividad productiva, necesariamente debe enmarcarse dentro del respecto a otros derechos fundamentales como lo el derecho a un ambiente sano y el derecho a la salud.El artículo 50 de la Constitución Política señala claramente que el Estado debe garantizar, defender y preservar el derecho de los habitantes del país a gozar de un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado. La acción garantizadora que debe llevar adelante el Estado implica velar por la existencia de condiciones que permitan el surgimiento de espacios vitales ambientalmente puros; la acción preservadora conlleva el impedir que las actividades que habitual y normalmente se desarrollan en esos espacios vitales desmejoren las condiciones ambientales de los mismos; la acción defensora implica impedir toda actividad que, realizada más allá de los parámetros de normalidad de la vida cotidiana, afecte decididamente la calidad del ambiente. La acción que la Constitución Política impone al Estado frente a los focos de contaminación ambiental es multidireccional y definitivamente activa, absolutamente intolerante frente a situaciones que amenazan o afectan las condiciones ambientales óptimas que están garantizadas por ella misma a los habitantes. Desde esta perspectiva no es permitido a la autoridades públicas hacer concesiones o conceder prórrogas para que se continúe afectando el medio ambiente, aún y cuando ello se haga con miras a traer beneficios económicos a una zona geográfica determinada. En el caso concreto está fuera de toda duda el hecho de que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional se ha constituido en un foco importante de desarrollo en el cantón de Cañas, generando más de cuatrocientos empleos directos y constituyéndose en fuente importante de ingresos por concepto de impuestos tanto a la administración central como al gobierno municipal del cantón. Así ha sido reconocido expresamente por la Municipalidad de Cañas la que ha manifestado su apoyo a la operación de la citada empresa, considerando especialmente la significación económica que esta tiene para la región. Es evidente también que en atención posiblemente a esa característica de la empresa, tanto la Municipalidad de Cañas, como el Ministerio de Salud y el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados han actuado de forma pasiva frente a la problemática ambiental producida por el funcionamiento de la planta procesadora de tilapia, pues no han actuado de forma decidida y enérgica para que se suspendan las causas contaminantes que se generan de ese proceso productivo. En lo que respecta a la Municipalidad de Cañas, por consideración a criterios de beneficio económico y social para los habitantes del cantón, se ha manifestado decididamente en favor de que se autorice la continuación de las actividades de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., sin tomar en cuenta que esas operaciones en las condiciones en que se habían venido dando constituyeron un foco importante de contaminación ambiental, pues se vertían las aguas residuales con materias sólidas en lagunas de oxidación que no pudieron asimilar eficientemente tales descargas, provocando un deficiente funcionamiento del sistema de tratamientos de aguas residuales domésticas de esa localidad.Como señala el numeral quinto de la Ley de Construcciones vigente, las Municipalidades son las encargadas de que las ciudades y poblaciones reúnan las condiciones necesarias de seguridad, salubridad en sus vías públicas, edificios y construcciones: tal encargo deviene en una obligación de ineludible cumplimiento cuando se relaciona con el numeral 50 de la Constitución Política antes citado. No pueden en consecuencia las corporaciones municipales desatender el bienestar de los habitantes de su cantón, en aquellos aspectos que como el ambiente afectan la calidad de vida de las personas. Tampoco es atendible el criterio de contraponer, dándole mayor valor, cuestiones puramente económicas como es el ingreso per cápita de los habitantes al derecho de éstos a gozar de un ambiente sano: carece de sentido dirigir la actividad estatal hacia la obtención de altos niveles de empleo sacrificando con ello la pureza del ambiente, pues sin lo segundo lo primero carece de valor. De allí que la Sala estime que la Municipalidad de Cañas ha actuado permisivamente, tolerando, y aún fomentando con sus declaraciones públicas, la operación de una empresa industrial cuyos residuos contaminan el ambiente, en especial el recurso hídrico, en aras de mantener un supuesto bienestar social que se limita al aspecto económico y deja lado cuestiones aún más fundamentales. En lo que se refiere al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, ha quedado debidamente acreditado que, sin contar con estudios técnicos que lo permitieran, autorizó en octubre de 1991 a la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. para que utilizara la red de alcantarillado sanitario, previsto para la recepción de desechos domésticos, y depositara allí las aguas servidas generadas por el proceso productivo que realizaba. Está claro para la Sala que, aún y cuando tales descargas industriales de aguas residuales respetaran los máximos de niveles contaminantes admitidos, la recepción de las mismas en el sistema lagunar excedía las posibilidades operativas previstas, lo que en definitiva contribuyó al deficiente funcionamiento del sistema. Asimismo el Presidente Ejecutivo de AyA, mediante resolución de las quince horas del once de agosto de 1998 dispuso cesar la recepción de las aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.: no obstante en atención a la reunión celebrada entre representante de Nombre5630, de la empresa citada, del Ministerio de Salud y de la Municipalidad de Cañas, el Presidente Ejecutivo de la primera entidad dispuso mediante resolución de las quince horas del once de agosto de 1998 dejar sin efecto temporalmente la orden de no recibir más aguas residuales, señalando que la misma no se ejecutaría hasta el tres de setiembre de 1998, a la espera de la propuesta de la empresa según se acordó en tal reunión. Queda pues evidenciada la falta de acción decisiva para poner fin a la recepción de residuos contaminantes que el sistema lagunar de Cañas no está en capacidad de procesar: viola pues el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados la obligación que constitucionalmente le viene impuesta de preservar y defender el medio ambiente. Respecto al Ministerio de Salud, esta institución si bien llevó a cabo controles y llegó a girar incluso órdenes sanitarias de cierre de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., no llevó adelante una acción decisiva que impidiera la continuación de las descargas contaminantes que esa empresa efectuaba en el sistema lagunar de Cañas. Como bien lo señala la Ministra de Salud a.i. en su informe, en agosto de 1998 al constatarse deficiencias físico-sanitarias se dictó orden sanitaria tendiente a suspender definitivamente el procesamiento de tilapia en el sitio en que se realizaba, y se ordenó el traslado a otro sitio que cumpliera con las exigencias del caso; pero el reproche se funda en que esa orden nunca se llegó a ejecutar dado que ese ministerio en atención a una reunión sostenida con personeros de la citada empresa, del Ministerio de Ambiente y del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, la dejó sin efecto y se concedió un plazo que vencía el 3 de setiembre de 1998 para que la empresa presentara una propuesta de solución al problema ambiental, propuesta que de ser admisible conllevaría una ampliación del plazo por otros dieciséis meses para que la empresa terminada la construcción de una nueva planta de proceso: en consecuencia mediante oficio DM-646-98 del primero de octubre de 1998 el Ministerio de Salud decidió cancelar la orden de cierre decretada contra la empresa. Como se señaló anteriormente, estima esta Sala que la atención de los problemas de afectación al medio ambiente, no pueden ser pospuestos, de modo que no es posible que se autorice por parte de entidades públicas la continuación de la acción contaminante por un plazo determinado, acudiendo para ello a criterios como los que antes se han expuesto que únicamente toman en cuenta la importancia económica de la fuente de contaminación y dejan de lado el efecto contaminante mismo. En consecuencia, debe concluirse que el Ministerio de Salud ha actuado en este asunto, no del modo activo que le impone el numeral 50 de la Constitución Política, sino en forma tolerante respecto de la fuente de contaminación representada por la operación de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.. Por último, en cuanto a esta empresa, es evidente, por aceptación incluso en el informe rendido, que desde 1992 ha estado descargando sus aguas residuales con materias orgánicas, en el sistema de tratamiento de aguas residuales domésticas operado por el Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados en el cantón de Cañas. Ese sistema lagunar no está ideado para atender aguas residuales de procesos industriales, por lo que los niveles de eficiencia del sistema decayeron sensiblemente a partir del inicio de operaciones de la planta procesadora de tilapia operada por dicha empresa. Tales descargas han producido el efecto de que las aguas contaminadas que efluyen del sistema hacia el río Cañas no están debidamente tratadas, trasladando a ese recurso hídrico elementos contaminantes. No es de recibo el alegato de que el sistema de por si no funciona y de que existen otras fuentes de contaminación en el medio, pues ello no elimina el carácter contaminante de los desechos vertidos por la empresa en el sistema lagunar de Cañas y la circunstancia de que ese sistema no está construido para tratar residuos de procesos industriales sino sólo domésticos. En consecuencia, el funcionamiento de la empresa citada constituye un plus de contaminación que afecta el derecho de los habitantes de la zona a gozar de un ambiente sano y ecológicamente equilibrado. Deben reconocerse los serios esfuerzos de la empresa para reducir el efecto contaminante de sus residuos actuales y para edificar una nueva planta de proceso que cumpla a cabalidad con las exigencias del caso, pero no puede por ello desconocerse el nocivo efecto ambiental de las actividades que hasta ahora ha realizado en el cantón de Cañas. Parece claro que la única causa del mal funcionamiento del sistema lagunar de Cañas no es la recepción de las aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., ya que existen problemas operativos propios de las instalaciones que para ser solucionados requieren de labores tales como reacondicionar los ingresos y salidas de las lagunas para mejorar las condiciones hidráulicas, tal y como expresamente lo hace ver el informe del Dr.Edgar González Contreras del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. Pero ello no exime de responsabilidad alguna a la citada empresa por descargar sus aguas residuales en ese sistema de tratamiento de aguas domésticas, y tampoco exime de responsabilidad a la entidades recurridas que lo permitieron. En definitiva, las descargas de residuos que la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A, vertió en el sistema lagunar de Cañas, constituye un plus de contaminación, técnicamente inadecuada, que debe sumarse a las condiciones propias de operación del sistema, lo que en definitiva contribuyó a la contaminación del recurso hídrico de la zona. Con fundamento en lo antes expuesto, debe declararse con lugar el recurso. Se ordena al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, que debe cesar en forma inmediata la recepción de aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. en el sistema lagunar que opera en el cantón de Cañas. Se condena al Estado, al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, la Municipalidad de Cañas y a la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., al pago de las costas, daños y perjuicios ocasionados con los hechos que sirven de base a esta declaratoria, lo que se liquidará en ejecución de sentencia de lo contencioso administrativo.\n\nPOR TANTO.\n\nSe declara con lugar el recurso. Se ordena al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, cesar en forma inmediata la recepción de aguas residuales de la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. en el sistema lagunar que opera en el cantón de Cañas. Se condena al Estado, al Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, a la Municipalidad de Cañas y a la empresa Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., al pago de las costas, daños y perjuicios ocasionados con los hechos que sirven de base a esta declaratoria, los que se liquidarán en ejecución de sentencia de lo contencioso administrativo.\n\nLuis Fernando Solano C.\n\nPresidente a.i.\n\nLuis Paulino Mora M.Eduardo Sancho G.\n\nCarlos Arguedas R.Adrián Vargas B.\n\nJosé Luis Molina Q.Susana Castro A.", "body_en_text": "05906\n\nAmparo\n\nDate: 07/28/1999\n\nCase File: 99-003195-007-CO-A\n\nRuling: 05906-99\n\nCONSTITUTIONAL CHAMBER OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE. San José, at sixteen hours and fifteen minutes on the twenty-eighth of July, nineteen ninety-nine.\n\nAmparo action filed by Nombre180543, with identity card number CED138290, against the Minister of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Municipality of Cañas, and Nombre182328 Internacional Sociedad Anónima.\n\nWHEREAS.\n\n1.- Nombre180543 files an amparo action against the Minister of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Municipality of Cañas, and Nombre182328 Internacional Sociedad Anónima, alleging a violation of the right of citizens to enjoy a healthy environment, based on the following facts. The petitioner states that there are complaints against the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which operates in the Cold Chain (Red de Frío) in Cañas de Guanacaste, for contamination of the waters of the Cañas River in that same locality, given that said company deposits its waste in the treatment lagoons of Aqueducts and Sewers without the proper treatment. Said contamination has been occurring for several years, but it is documented from 1997 to date. The aforementioned lagoons, built by the Municipality in 1958, are not technically or design-wise capable of treating the wastewater of said company, which is characterized by containing high levels of fat, blood, scales, and other fish byproducts coming from the tilapia processing plant operated by said company. As the treatment lagoons of Aqueducts and Sewers lack the capacity to regenerate the residual and black waters of the canton of Cañas, the water deposited there is discharged \"raw\" into the Cañas River, producing high contamination, especially with fecal matter. The waters of the Cañas River are used by the population downstream both for human consumption in its various forms and for irrigation in agricultural production for human consumption, in addition to the fact that the final destination of the river's waters is the Gulf of Nicoya, where an important part of the country's artisanal fishing is located. He further indicates that it has been shown that the deterioration in the quality of life of the residents of Cañas is related to the consumption of contaminated water and other byproducts. He indicates that despite various efforts made by the Ombudsman's Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes) regarding the aforementioned contamination problem, at the time of filing the appeal, it is not known whether those directly or indirectly responsible for it have carried out the pertinent and necessary actions to end the contamination and to mitigate the damages caused. He points out that in order to seek a solution to the problem, he promoted a meeting at his office on March 9, 1999 between the Ombudsman's Office, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, representatives of the affected communities, and the representative of Commonwealth Development Corporation - owner of AquaCorporation S.A.; on that occasion, the involved parties spoke about the problem; the company representatives admitted responsibility for the reported facts. Regarding the company Nombre182328 S.A., the petitioner indicates that it lacks the proper environmental impact assessment (estudio de impacto ambiental), a waste management plan including wastewater, that it operates on State-owned land not designed for fish processing, that the discharges said company makes exceed the permissible pollution limits contained in the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales), and that it does not have an updated and valid operating sanitary permit issued by the Ministry of Health. Regarding the Ministry of Health, the petitioner indicates that it has allowed the operation of the company Nombre182328 outside the law and against current technical criteria; also, knowing the seriousness of the problem, the cited Ministry favors the company Nombre182328 and through its inaction allows the environment to continue being degraded and the river to be polluted, which directly affects the quality of life of the neighbors who require the water to satisfy their consumption needs. As for the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, its inaction regarding the aforementioned problem has allowed the cited company to continue discharging polluting residual materials into the Cañas River, affecting the health of the river's neighbors and damaging biodiversity; it is also indicated that the wastewater from said company should not be received in the stabilization lagoons. Finally, regarding the Municipality of Cañas, it has allowed the company Nombre182328 to continue the polluting illegal activity it carries out, breaching existing environmental legislation. The petitioner requests that the appeal be granted, that the Minister of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, and the Municipality of Cañas be compelled to comply with the legislation applicable to the operation of the company Nombre182328 S.A.; that a halt be ordered to the operation of the cited company; that the respondent parties be condemned to pay the costs of the process and the environmental damages caused by their action or inaction.\n\n2.- By ruling at fifteen hours forty-nine minutes on the seventh of May, nineteen ninety-nine, this amparo was processed against the Minister of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Municipality of Cañas, and Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., requesting the respective reports.\n\n3.- The Municipal Mayor of Cañas reports that since the beginning of the environmental problem raised, this municipal corporation has been attentive to the preparation of the respective technical studies, and also vigilant that the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, and the interested company comply with the agreements adopted to solve the situation. The reporting party provides a copy of an agreement dated August 17, 1998 signed by the different parties involved. He also indicates that it is Aqueducts and Sewers that built and is in charge of the operation and maintenance of the oxidation lagoons and the aqueduct of the city of Cañas. He reiterates that his represented party cannot be attributed any responsibility for the problems reported by the petitioner, but rather that the responsibilities correspond to other institutions, so he requests that the appeal be dismissed as far as it concerns the Municipality of Cañas and that the petitioner be ordered to pay costs.\n\n4.- For their part, the representatives of the Local Defense Committee of Cañas point out (Nombre144) that the contamination problem of the Cañas River is due to the existence of several polluting sources and not only to the waste from the company Nombre182328 S.A. as the petitioner Nombre180543 tries to make it appear; they cite as such polluting agents the existence of scrap metal dumps and other garbage near the spring (naciente) of the Cañas River, the garbage dumps and organic waste that the neighbors of the community of Vergel throw into the river several kilometers before the city of Cañas, the floods that cause the overflowing of septic tanks of the Direction21190 located one kilometer east of the bridge over the said river, and the San Cristóbal Sur ditch that serves as a drain for the wastewater of the Dirección21191, and San Cristóbal. They point out (Nombre144) that important works have been carried out to solve the environmental problem, such as the investment of Aqueducts and Sewers of sixty million colones to connect one hundred thirty-eight houses to the water treatment system, and the signing of a contract by Nombre182328 with Amanco to achieve a permissible limit of polluting substances while it moves to its new processing plant. The cited representatives acknowledge that Nombre182328 set up in the Cold Chain (Red de Frío) in Cañas since 1992, with the knowledge and tolerance of those who should not have allowed it, and currently it has become consolidated in the community, representing a source of work and income for more than five hundred employees, who see their economic and emotional stability in danger because the filing of this amparo could entail the closure of the company, which would cause social chaos. From this perspective, they point out that the interested company has shown good willingness to solve the contamination problem. They point out (Nombre144) that the filing of this amparo is imprudent and premature, since measures are already being taken to counteract the contamination.\n\n5.- The Acting Minister of Health reports that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. indeed does not have an operating sanitary permit because that Ministry has decided not to renew it until it complies with the legal and regulatory requirements. She indicates that by sanitary order notified on August 14, 1998, the sanitary permit that the cited company had was annulled, and its relocation to another site was ordered, where the approval of location (visto bueno de ubicación) and the respective operating sanitary permit must be obtained. She indicates that in August of 1998, an agreement was signed at that Ministry by the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Minister of Environment and Energy, the Municipality of Cañas, and a representative of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., granting the company a deadline until September 3, 1998, to present a modification proposal for the oxidation lagoons in Cañas so as to comply with the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas), as well as a further sixteen-month period for the company to build a new plant. The company presented the respective proposal via memorandum GGYB102/98 of September 2, 1998, containing the plan for treating the wastewater of the city of Cañas, a proposal that includes measures coordinated with the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers; such measures entailed an economic investment exceeding five million colones and an increase in operating costs of approximately twelve million colones; however, in that memorandum the company acknowledged that the best solution was the construction of a new physical plant, which would be ready within the agreed sixteen months. The Vice Minister of Health points out that given the company's attitude of striving to comply with the sanitary orders, that Ministry deemed it opportune to leave without effect the closure order for the company and to allow the granting of a reasonable period for the implementation of sanitary measures that would provide a definitive solution to the problem raised: said period was set at three months as indicated in official communication UAC-2018-98 of April twenty-ninth, nineteen ninety-nine. She indicates that the administrative action responds to the principles of rationality and reasonableness contained in numeral 216 of the General Law of Public Administration (Ley General de la Administración Pública). She points out that that Ministry not only has not granted an extension to the operating sanitary permit, but also suspended the one that was in force. Follow-up has been given to the problem, and even during March 18 and 19, 1999, a sanitary inspection was conducted of the wastewater treatment plant, the community of Hotel, Dirección21192, the Quebrada San Cristóbal treatment plant, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.; it was possible to verify that the latter company has made improvements to its wastewater treatment system, which has improved the quality of the water discharged into the sanitary sewer network: furthermore, it is noted that once the Ministry of Health approves it, equipment for the treatment of wastewater will be installed through the company Amanco, which will allow compliance with the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales). It is also indicated that the Human Environment Control Process Unit, via official communication CAH.080-99, is issuing instructions to local authorities so that, via a sanitary order, they request the mentioned company to take several actions. It concludes that the problem of managing the wastewater originating from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has been duly addressed by the Ministry of Health, and that the decisions taken are framed within the reasonableness and rationality inherent in the administrative function. She requests that this amparo action be dismissed.\n\n6.- The priest José Herrera Salas, representing the Diocesan Commission for Social Ministry of the Diocese of Tilarán, filed a writ supporting the filing of this amparo, as he considers it a legitimate complaint about the problem of river contamination in the province of Guanacaste.\n\n7.- Alejandro Batalla Bonilla, in his capacity as special judicial representative of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., reports, on May 17, 1999, that since 1986 this company began an innovative tilapia farming project on the outskirts of the city of Cañas, province of Guanacaste, taking advantage of the infrastructure of the Arenal Irrigation District that had just been completed. During the first years of trial and adaptation, the fish processing phase was carried out in San José, but in 1992 the decision was made to install the processing plant near the production farm. This is how, taking advantage that the Cold Chain (Red de Frío) buildings in Cañas were negotiated with its concessionaire, Consorcio Poder del Mar S.A., the installation of the processing plant at that site: for this purpose, permits were obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) to take the necessary water and to discharge the wastewater into the sanitary sewer system. The reporting party indicates that while it is true that in 1992 the plant, due to the amount of tilapia it processed daily, managed to comply with the parameters required by AyA, with the increase in production that occurred in 1996/1997 and the enactment of the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales) published in La Gaceta on July 19, 1997, the company ended up in a situation of non-compliance with the parameters demanded by the new legislation: in view of this, it was concluded that the only viable solution to the problem was the construction of a new plant. This is how one of the partners of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. decided to invest in the construction of a new plant, representing a contribution of between three and four million dollars, forming the company Terrapez S.A. for such purposes. The company Terrapez S.A. acquired in June 1998 two farms on the outskirts of Cañas with the purpose of building the new processing plant there: thus, with an investment of one hundred fifty-eight thousand nine hundred thirty-six dollars, the farms in the Guanacaste canton with registration numbers Placa35198 and Placa35199 were acquired, with a total combined area of more than twenty-eight hectares. On August 11, 1998, a professional services contract was signed with the company Franz Sauter y Asociados S.A., for the design of the preliminary project (anteproyecto), obtaining preliminary permits, coordination of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Estudio de Impacto Ambiental), procedures before SETENA, preparation of the civil, electrical, and mechanical design, as well as the preparation of construction plans for the new industrial plant for processing and packaging tilapia. Likewise, the Icelandic company Meka Engineering was hired to advise on the conceptual design of the said plant. On the other hand, on April 29, 1999, a contract was signed with the company Amanco for the construction of two water treatment plants under a turnkey modality, one of them destined for the current plant of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. located in the Cold Chain (Red de Frío) and the second for the new processing plant on the land of Terrapez S.A. In order to carry out the respective environmental impact assessment, the company Terrapez S.A. hired the company Desarrollos en Ecología, Paisajismo, Planificación, Arquitectura y Turismo S.A., an assessment that, at the time of rendering the report, had already been presented to SETENA. For their part, the Municipality of Cañas, the Ministry of Health, and the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) have granted the respective permits for the location of the new processing plant, the Municipality of Cañas has authorized the respective earthworks (movimiento de tierra), and the company Franz Sauter y Asociados will soon award the tender it has promoted for hiring the company that will build the plant. It is also reported that starting in April 2000, the new plant will begin operations. The reporting party indicates that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has promoted the development of a depressed zone such as Cañas. Currently, 475 people work directly for said company, of whom 250 work in the processing plant, the majority being female heads of household; additionally, it generates fifteen hundred indirect jobs, pays annually five hundred million colones in payroll, and makes annual payments to suppliers, private companies, and public institutions for an amount of one thousand five hundred million colones. There is also interest in independent small farmers dedicating themselves to tilapia farming to take advantage of the capacity of the new processing plant. Regarding the facts mentioned in the amparo, the reporting party indicates that the company is not responsible for the contamination of the Cañas River and the illnesses that the neighbors are suffering, since that city does not have a residential wastewater treatment plant, so the sanitary sewer empties into some stabilization lagoons whose effluent empties into the Cañas River: the problem with those lagoons is that the sanitary sewer system receives not only residential black water but also stormwater, so the lagoons overflow and the water reaches the Cañas River without any treatment. Consequently, the wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has nothing to do with the inadequate design of the lagoons. It is reported that once the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers made it known that the company's wastewater had exceeded the authorized margins, a series of works were initiated to improve the quality of the effluent discharged into the sewer system. Thus, a series of meshes and grates were installed inside the plant, additional personnel were hired, and water cleaning and filtering routines were implemented; in 1998, a dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank system was implemented to separate fat and protein from the water, and in January 1999, the process of separating water from blood by means of coagulation and sedimentation was initiated: these actions managed to reduce by 50% the polluting load of the chemical oxygen demand and the biological oxygen demand, and it was within this context of seeking a solution to the problem that the construction of a new processing plant was decided upon through the company Terrapez S.A. The reporting party indicates that in August 1998, the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. promoted a meeting among the Minister of Health, the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, a representative of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the President of the Municipal Council of Cañas, with the purpose of reaching a solution to the problem of the company's wastewater and the lack of capacity of the AyA lagoons. On that occasion, an agreement was signed through which the company committed to proposing a solution to the problem within fifteen days, and if the proposed solution was feasible, a period of sixteen months would be granted for the construction of the new plant. Within these timeframes, a proposal was made to the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Nombre5630) consisting not only in the substantial improvement of the wastewater but also in the purchase and operation of aerators and electrical installations; said institution formulated a counterproposal that would mean a permanent solution to the problem, which the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. accepted in the sense that the latter would commit to acquiring five hectares of land adjacent to the current lagoons, but this could not be materialized because the owner excessively increased the price of the property; it was then agreed that the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Nombre5630) would proceed with the expropriation of the land, and the mentioned company would take charge of the construction of the lagoon; the expropriation process was initiated, the respective publication was made in La Gaceta on February 23, 1999, and the reporting company hired the company CAVESA for the earthworks (movimiento de tierra) of twenty thousand cubic meters to build the mentioned lagoon. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, the legal representative of the respondent company indicates that the installation of a wastewater treatment system has already been contracted with the company Amanco, which will be operating as of June 17, 1999: this is because, despite the company's efforts, it has not been possible to comply with the minimums established in the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales). The reporting party points out that it is true that the lagoons of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Nombre5630) in Cañas, built in 1958, are not capable of receiving the waters of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., but that neither are they capable of receiving the waters of the city, so the discharge of the company's waters is neither the main nor the essential factor in the malfunctioning of the lagoons. He indicates that the contamination of the Cañas River has several causes, so it is not only the company's activity that causes the reported problem. Regarding the existence of environmental impact assessments, it is reported that when the company began its operations, such a requirement did not exist, but currently the assessment has already been done and submitted to SETENA. An environmental management plan that includes matters related to solid waste management has also been presented to the authorities of the Ministry of Health. It is likewise true that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. operates in the Cold Chain (Red de Frío) of the Ministry of Finance, but it does so under a contract it signed with the concessionaire company Consorcio Poder del Mar S.A. It is not true that the respondent company lacks a permit from the Ministry of Health, since that Ministry has granted, as of April 29, 1999, a three-month period to comply with the requirements of the decree regarding the Discharge and Reuse of Industrial Waters, so that operating authorization exists until the established date. Therefore, given that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has acted responsibly to fully comply with the demands and requirements inherent to its operation, it requests that the appeal be dismissed as premature, given that there are current deadlines within which compliance with such aspects will be given.\n\n8.- The Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers reports that his represented institution is responsible for controlling the quality of the water that the population discharges into the sanitary sewer. For some time, a tilapia processing plant has been connected to the oxidation system of Cañas, which discharges its liquid waste there: he points out that it is not advisable for such a type of industry to connect to a lagoon system near a city because the fresh protein from its waste, when deposited without prior treatment, releases unpleasant odors, besides affecting lagoon efficiency. The Cañas water treatment system was designed to treat exclusively domestic-origin wastewater and not waste from meat industries. On the other hand, due to the enactment of new regulations, the current effluent of the lagoon system does not comply with the requirements demanded by the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales). Due to complaints from users pointing out the problem of the evacuation and treatment of the wastewater of Cañas, on August 11, 1998, a resolution was adopted whereby the discharge of sludge from septic tanks into the sanitary sewers and lagoon systems of the Chorotega region was immediately ceased, as was the reception of wastewater from the industrial processing of tilapia by the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. Given that this company committed to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and Aqueducts and Sewers to present a proposal for modifying the use of the oxidation lagoons, this Executive Presidency, by resolution at fifteen hours on August 11, 1998, agreed to extend the deadline for ceasing reception of the wastewater, in order to analyze the company's proposal. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. filed a motion for reversal on August 17, 1998, against the act of the Executive Presidency of AyA, alleging that it had been discharging wastewater into the Cañas lagoon system for more than six years and that it had not been sufficiently concluded that said company breached the Regulation on the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater (Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales): this motion was granted as the appellant was correct. The reporting party indicates that representatives of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers have held constant meetings with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., seeking alternative solutions to the problem raised, it being within this context that this institution has committed to expanding and improving the existing oxidation lagoon, for which the respective administrative bidding procedures are being carried out. Consequently, he requests that the appeal be dismissed.\n\n9.- By writ dated May 26, 1999, visible on folio 570, those claiming to be members of the Committee \"Proyecto Ríos Limpios\" of the Social Ministry of the Diocese of Tilarán ratify the basis of this amparo. They point out (Nombre144) that in the neighborhoods of Cañas there are various cases of people suffering from illnesses related to the contamination of the oxidation lagoons of that locality. They request that an end be put to this harmful contamination and that the rights of citizens be upheld.\n\n10.- By means of writs on folios 573 and 574, dated May 26 and 16, 1999 respectively, neighbors of the community of Cañas express their support for the filing of this amparo. They point out (Nombre144) that they have long suffered the problems of contamination caused by bad odors and overflows from the oxidation lagoons of that locality, a problem they attribute to the contamination generated by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which discharges its industrial waste without any treatment. They point out (Nombre144) that the company's facilities do not have a liquid waste treatment plant, waste that is discharged without any treatment into the black water treatment lagoons. They note that it is proven that fish waste is incompatible with the lagoon system designed to treat black water, so the activity of the cited company has caused extremely high levels of organic contamination and enormous levels of fecal coliforms. This situation is serious because a few kilometers downstream on the Cañas River, there are rural communities like La Libertad and the Hotel neighborhood that supply their domestic needs with those waters, which has caused serious illnesses, and in August 1998 one of those communities even suffered an outbreak of hepatitis A. They point out (Nombre144) that there have been multiple warnings to the company to properly treat its waste, but despite the existence of an order from the Ministry of Health in August 1998 to close operations, the economic power is such that the Minister, acting against technical recommendations, suspended the sanitary order. They request that the respondent company be ordered to respect national laws, and that the right of the inhabitants not to become ill because of the contamination generated by the respondent's operation be recognized.\n\n11.- By means of a filing dated May 30, 1999, visible on folio 588, the Ombudsperson of the Republic presents a joinder in favor of the appellant based on the following arguments. That Ombudsperson's Office, in response to the complaint filed by Mr. Nombre182329, followed expediente 634-23-98, issuing the final report that was communicated to the responsible authorities through notes DHR-9901057-99, DHR-9901055-99, DHR-9901054-99, DHR-9901059-99, and DHR-9901056-99, all dated January 28, 1999. In said investigation, the contamination problem of the Cañas River was verified, due to the malfunction of the \"lagoon system (sistema lagunar)\" for treating the urban sewage (aguas negras y servidas) of that city, whose main responsibility falls upon the authorities of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados) and the Ministry of Health, since together with the Municipality of Cañas they have tolerated irregular situations that have been confirmed. The issues raised must be analyzed comprehensively, interrelating aspects such as land use (uso del suelo), industrial, agro-industrial, and agricultural production schemes, urban expansion, the supply of potable water for human consumption, irrigation needs, transportation and food, and the preservation of the biodiversity of the different ecosystems. The contamination of surface waters of rivers and streams has the aggravating factor that it transfers contaminating agents to the marine environment. The contamination problem of the Cañas River is a clear example of the above. The lagoon system of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers used in the city of Cañas is not consistent with current urban development, and it must be added that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is dedicated to tilapia processing, is operating without an adequate wastewater treatment system, and therefore deposits them in said lagoon system, causing the insufficiency of the system and contaminating the river with tilapia residue, oil, blood, and others. The Ombudsperson's joinder points out that according to chemical analyses performed by the National Water Laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers at the company's plant, from 1994 up to November 1998, the parameters contained in Executive Decree (Decreto Ejecutivo) 26042-S-MINAE, which is the Regulation for the Discharge and Reuse of Wastewater, are exceeded, especially in relation to the chemical oxygen demand (1000 mg/L is allowed and the result was 1604 mg/L), the biochemical oxygen demand (300 mg/L is allowed and the result was 834 mg/L), the level of fats and oils (the maximum level is 100 and the result was 1114), and suspended solids (a maximum level of 500 mg/L is allowed and the result was 1221 mg/L). A report dated August 5, 1998, by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, is also cited, in which it is mentioned that the decrease in efficiency of the Cañas lagoon system coincides with the start-up of the tilapia processing plant.\n\nThe Ombudsperson notes that the legal framework applicable to the case, specifically Article 132 of the Wildlife Conservation Law (Ley de Conservación de la Fauna Silvestre), Article 65 of the Organic Environmental Law (Ley Orgánica del Ambiente), and Article 285 and following of the General Health Law (Ley General de Salud), coincidentally state that any natural or legal person must be prohibited from contaminating surface, underground, and territorial maritime waters, directly or indirectly, through the discharge of sewage (aguas negras) or wastewater, in a way that they become a danger to the health of people, terrestrial and aquatic fauna, therefore each industry must be required to implement an adequate wastewater treatment system. Consequently, the Ministry of Health, despite having concluded after the inspection of July 6, 1998, that the industry could not operate in the place where it is located, did not execute the special closure order (medida especial de clausura) provided for in Article 363 of the General Health Law. Likewise, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, as responsible for the Cañas sewage treatment plant, was obligated to keep it in good condition, therefore it should not have agreed to receive wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since it does not have an adequate treatment system conforming to current legal framework. Consequently, in the Ombudsperson's opinion, Nombre5630 has been tolerant of a contamination situation to the detriment of the urban wastewater treatment service for the population of Cañas. Furthermore, the Ombudsperson points out that the Municipality of Cañas should have had more active participation in guaranteeing the protection of the community's natural resources, as stated in Article 1 of the Construction Law (Ley de Construcciones). The Ombudsperson concludes by noting that although it is true that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has presented a proposal for relocating the tilapia processing plant, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers is expanding and improving the lagoon system for urban wastewater treatment of the canton of Cañas, it is worrisome that while this is not finalized, the already verified contamination indices in the waters of the Cañas River will remain constant.\n\nDrafted by Magistrate Arguedas Ramírez, and;\n\nCONSIDERING (CONSIDERANDO).\n\nI.- After analyzing the appeal (recurso), the reports rendered, and the documents provided, the Chamber (Sala) considers that the following facts must be considered to properly resolve the matter: a-) That the Cañas lagoon system was built in the mid-1970s, with the purpose of purifying domestic wastewater and lacks the capacity to receive and adequately treat waste and wastewater typical of industrial or agro-industrial activities: the already treated water is discharged in turn through an open channel into the Cañas River, from whose course water is taken for several activities such as crop irrigation, among others. (see copy of the evaluation report of the Cañas lagoon system prepared by Eng. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales visible on folio 18 and following, copy of the report \"Analysis of the management of industrial and city wastewater of Cañas\" prepared by the company Consultores en Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria from folio 245 and following, as well as copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689 of this file). b-) That by means of an official letter dated October 16, 1991, officials of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers granted the respective authorization for the company Nombre182328 to use the sanitary sewer system to discharge the sewage (aguas servidas) resulting from the tilapia processing and slaughtering process: that said authorization was given without any technical study supporting it. (see photocopy of folio 341, and recommendations of the Evaluation of the Cañas Lagoon System carried out by Lic. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, visible in photocopies of folios 18 to 26 especially folio 25 of this file). c-) That starting in 1992, the company Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A. began operating the tilapia processing plant, specifically in the facilities of the Red de Frío in Cañas, province of Guanacaste (see report of the cited company from folios 331 to 337). d-) That the wastewater disposal system of the tilapia processing plant operated by the cited company, from the start of operations, did not include the existence of a treatment plant that would allow the quality of the effluent into the sewer system not to affect the proper functioning of the Cañas lagoon system, which allowed contaminating waste to be discharged in turn into the waters of the river of the same name for a long time. (see final report of the Ombudsperson's Office, referring to the expediente of that office 0634-23-98 visible in photocopies of folios 720 to 734, as a copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689). e-) After the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant, the efficiency levels of the lagoon system for water treatment in the city of Cañas declined notably, detecting in evaluations carried out between 1994 and 1998 by the National Water Laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, that excesses existed regarding the authorized parameters, especially in terms of chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, levels of fats, oils, and suspended solids: said levels appear to be increasing, showing extremely high numbers by November 1998. (see joinder brief of the Ombudsperson of the Inhabitants on folio 588 and following, photocopies of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689, as well as copy of resolution 252-98-TAA of the Administrative Environmental Tribunal (Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo) from folio 795 and following). f-) That in an evaluation carried out on February 11, 1997, by the Wastewater Section of the Water Quality Process of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, on the main discharge of the tilapia processing plant, the presence of grease, scales, blood, and pieces of fish skin was reported in the connection ash pit, warning on that occasion of the existence of another discharge of water with blood in another sector that reaches the sewer; it was concluded on that occasion that the discharge from the tilapia processing plant does not meet the maximum permissible limits to be discharged into the AyA sanitary sewer; the maximum limits are biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) 300 mg/L, chemical oxygen demand (COD) 1000 mg/L, and suspended solids 150 mg/L, while the values quantified in the evaluation are respectively 1000 mg/L, 11600 mg/L, and 338 mg/L; it was recommended in said evaluation not to accept connections from meat industries, even if they meet the maximum BOD and COD limits, since the systems of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers must be predominantly for treating domestic wastewater. (see photocopies of the cited evaluation from folios 18 to 26). g-) That by resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 11, 1998, the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), based on the grounds set forth therein, ordered the cessation of the reception of wastewater coming from the industrial processing of tilapia by Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., granting a period of eight days from the notification to enforce the decision: by virtue of an appeal (recurso) filed by the cited company, by resolution at four o'clock in the afternoon on August 17 of that same year, it was ordered to enforce the cited measure until September 3, 1998. (see report of the Executive President of Nombre5630 from folio 497 and following, and copy of resolutions from folios 522 to 525 and 528 to 530). h-) By means of a health order (orden sanitaria) notified on August 14, 1998, the Ministry of Health ordered the suspension of tilapia processing and packaging within the period of fifteen days, as well as to proceed to move the processing plant itself from the location, for which a period of three months was granted; against that health order, the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. filed an appeal for reversal (recurso de revocatoria); subsequently, by virtue of an agreement reached on August 17, 1998, in the presence of Deputy Irene Urpí, between the Minister of Health, the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Municipality of Cañas, and a representative of the cited company, it was agreed to grant the latter a period until September 3, 1998, to present a proposal for modifying the oxidation lagoons of Cañas, so that if the proposal were admissible, an additional period of 16 months would be granted for its implementation and for the construction of a new tilapia processing plant: consequently, by means of official letter DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministry of Health decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. (see copy of official letter UPC-CES-146-98 from folio 35, copy of the signed agreement on folios 127 and 128, report of the Acting Minister of Health from folio 306 and following, copy of official letter UPC-CAH-682-99 from folio 316 to 320, copy of health order from folio 327, as well as report of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. visible from folio 331 to 337). i-) That the Municipality of Cañas, by means of a public letter dated August 14, 1998, signed by the President and the Municipal Mayor, addressed to the ministries of Environment and Energy, Health, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, considering that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has collaborated significantly in improving the standard of living of the inhabitants of that area, that it represents an important source of income for residents and of foreign currency for the public treasury, and taking into account that said company received notification from the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers stating that the deposit of the company's wastewater into the Cañas oxidation lagoon would no longer be permitted, which entails the paralysis of the company, agreed to support the cited company to continue operations in the canton of Cañas, and to deplore the attitude of community groups and the yellow press that have exaggerated the existing problem. (see copy of the cited letter on folios 238 and 239.) j-) Likewise, the Municipality of Cañas, in session 70-99 of April 19, 1999, unanimously agreed to support the efforts that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. is making to operate in the facilities of the Red de Frío in that canton, while the definitive move to a new processing plant is carried out. (see photocopy of folio 216). k-) That by means of official letter UPC-PSF-0514-99 of April 29, 1999, the Permits and Controls Unit of the Ministry of Health granted the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. a period of three months to implement the necessary measures to definitively resolve the sanitary problems generated by the operation of the tilapia processing plant. (see report of the Vice Minister of Health from folios 306 to 310, and copy of official letter from folio 455). l-) Despite the fact that by means of official letter number ACT-SC-185-99 of May 7, 1999, the Head of the Subregional Office in Cañas of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), notes that by then the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. was no longer discharging its water into the oxidation lagoon but rather all waste is collected and transported to a company farm where it is treated in an oxidation lagoon of the processing plant, documents provided by the appellant reveal data suggesting otherwise, since as is inferred from the observation logbooks kept at the Cañas oxidation lagoons during the month of April 1999 -the last annotation provided is from April 21 of this year- by the end of that month tilapia skins and guts were still being collected at the site. (see photocopies of work logbooks at the Cañas lagoon system from folios 103 to 108, and photocopy of official letter visible on folio 794).\n\nII.- In this amparo, the issue of the interrelation between the development of productive activities, in this case the processing of tilapia for export, and respect for the environment is raised. Within that context, the appellant challenges the position that the producing company, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipality of Cañas have maintained regarding this issue.\n\nIII.- As is evident from the statement of facts in the preceding considering (considerando), the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is dedicated to the production and processing of tilapia for export, started its operations in 1992 in the facilities of the Red de Frío of Cañas, located in that canton of the province of Guanacaste. To begin its operations, it was authorized, without any prior technical study, by the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers to discharge its wastewater into the sewer system whose initial destination is the system of oxidation lagoons of Cañas, a system that drains into the river of the same name and whose waters flow into the Gulf of Nicoya. Once the operation of the tilapia processing plant began, the Cañas lagoon system, which was designed exclusively for the treatment of wastewater of domestic origin, notably decreased its efficiency levels, detecting in measurements taken between 1994 and 1998 high levels of biological and chemical oxygen demands entering the system, which indicates an overload of the lagoon, also resulting in the contaminating load of said plant being much higher than that of the population of Cañas covered by the sanitary sewer system that discharges into the lagoon. Although it is true that there are several other contaminating causes of the Cañas River, as the respondent company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. rightly points out, the fact cannot be ignored that the operation of the tilapia processing plant is one more contaminating element that aggravates the existing situation. Faced with this problem, the Ministry of Health, in mid-August 1998, ordered by means of a health order the suspension of the tilapia processing and packaging activity and the relocation of the processing plant to another site that met sanitary requirements. However, after a meeting held a few days later with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, and the Municipality of Cañas, that ministry decided to annul the cited closure order. For its part, the Municipality of Cañas, despite considering the existence of environmental contamination problems, through its actions and communiqués has strongly supported the operation of the tilapia processing plant, considering primarily the importance that this operation has for the economic development of the area.\n\nIV.- It must be considered that the rights to life and to health, as well as the right to enjoy a healthy environment, are all guaranteed at a fundamental level in the Magna Carta, so that any economic criterion one wishes to apply in a specific case must yield in importance to the former. From that perspective, the exercise of the rights to work and to develop a productive activity must necessarily be framed within respect for other fundamental rights such as the right to a healthy environment and the right to health. Article 50 of the Political Constitution clearly states that the State must guarantee, defend, and preserve the right of the country's inhabitants to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The guaranteeing action that the State must carry out implies ensuring the existence of conditions that allow the emergence of environmentally pure vital spaces; the preserving action entails preventing the activities that habitually and normally develop in those vital spaces from worsening their environmental conditions; the defending action implies impeding any activity that, carried out beyond the normal parameters of daily life, decisively affects the quality of the environment. The action that the Political Constitution imposes on the State against sources of environmental contamination is multidirectional and definitively active, absolutely intolerant of situations that threaten or affect the optimal environmental conditions that are guaranteed by it to the inhabitants. From this perspective, public authorities are not allowed to make concessions or grant extensions to continue affecting the environment, even when this is done with a view to bringing economic benefits to a specific geographical area. In the specific case, there is no doubt about the fact that the company Nombre182328 Internacional has become an important source of development in the canton of Cañas, generating more than four hundred direct jobs and becoming an important source of income in terms of taxes for both the central administration and the municipal government of the canton. This has been expressly recognized by the Municipality of Cañas, which has manifested its support for the operation of the cited company, especially considering the economic significance it has for the region. It is also evident that, possibly in consideration of this characteristic of the company, both the Municipality of Cañas, the Ministry of Health, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers have acted passively in the face of the environmental problems produced by the operation of the tilapia processing plant, since they have not acted decisively and energetically to suspend the contaminating causes generated by this production process. Regarding the Municipality of Cañas, out of consideration for criteria of economic and social benefit for the inhabitants of the canton, it has decidedly manifested itself in favor of authorizing the continuation of the activities of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., without taking into account that these operations, under the conditions in which they had been occurring, constituted a significant source of environmental contamination, because wastewater with solid matter was discharged into oxidation lagoons that could not efficiently assimilate such discharges, causing a deficient functioning of the domestic wastewater treatment system of that locality. As stated in Article 5 of the current Construction Law (Ley de Construcciones), the Municipalities are responsible for ensuring that cities and towns meet the necessary conditions of safety and salubrity in their public roads, buildings, and constructions: this responsibility becomes an obligation of unavoidable compliance when related to Article 50 of the Political Constitution cited above. Consequently, municipal corporations cannot neglect the well-being of the inhabitants of their canton, in those aspects that, like the environment, affect the quality of life of people. Nor is the criterion of counterposing, giving greater value to, purely economic issues such as the per capita income of the inhabitants against their right to enjoy a healthy environment acceptable: it makes no sense to direct state activity towards achieving high employment levels, thereby sacrificing environmental purity, because without the latter, the former is worthless. Hence, the Chamber considers that the Municipality of Cañas has acted permissively, tolerating, and even fomenting with its public declarations, the operation of an industrial company whose waste contaminates the environment, especially the water resource, for the sake of maintaining a supposed social well-being that is limited to the economic aspect and leaves aside even more fundamental issues. Regarding the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, it has been duly proven that, without having technical studies to permit it, it authorized the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. in October 1991 to use the sanitary sewer system, intended for the reception of domestic waste, and deposit there the sewage generated by the production process it carried out. It is clear to the Chamber that, even if such industrial wastewater discharges respected the maximum contaminating levels permitted, receiving them in the lagoon system exceeded the foreseen operational possibilities, which definitively contributed to the deficient functioning of the system. Likewise, the Executive President of AyA, by resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 11, 1998, ordered the cessation of the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.: however, in consideration of the meeting held between representatives of Nombre5630, the cited company, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipality of Cañas, the Executive President of the first entity ordered by resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 11, 1998, to temporarily annul the order to no longer receive wastewater, stating that it would not be executed until September 3, 1998, pending the proposal of the company as agreed in that meeting. Thus, the lack of decisive action to put an end to the reception of contaminating waste that the Cañas lagoon system is not capable of processing is evidenced: the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, therefore, violates the constitutionally imposed obligation to preserve and defend the environment. Regarding the Ministry of Health, this institution, although it carried out controls and even issued health closure orders against the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., did not carry out decisive action that would prevent the continuation of the contaminating discharges that this company made into the Cañas lagoon system. As the Acting Minister of Health rightly points out in her report, in August 1998, upon verifying physical-sanitary deficiencies, a health order was issued aimed at definitively suspending tilapia processing at the site where it was being conducted, and relocation to another site that met the requirements of the case was ordered; but the criticism is based on the fact that this order was never executed given that said ministry, in consideration of a meeting held with officials of the cited company, the Ministry of Environment, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, annulled it and granted a period expiring on September 3, 1998, for the company to present a proposed solution to the environmental problem, a proposal that, if admissible, would entail an extension of the period for another sixteen months for the company to finish the construction of a new processing plant: consequently, by means of official letter DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministry of Health decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. As previously noted, this Chamber considers that addressing problems affecting the environment cannot be postponed, so it is not possible for public entities to authorize the continuation of contaminating action for a determined period, resorting to criteria such as those previously set forth that only take into account the economic importance of the source of contamination and leave aside the contaminating effect itself. Consequently, it must be concluded that the Ministry of Health has acted in this matter, not in the active manner imposed by Article 50 of the Political Constitution, but in a tolerant manner regarding the source of contamination represented by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. Finally, regarding this company, it is evident, by acceptance even in the report rendered, that since 1992 it has been discharging its wastewater with organic matter into the domestic wastewater treatment system operated by the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers in the canton of Cañas. That lagoon system is not designed to handle wastewater from industrial processes, so the efficiency levels of the system declined significantly after the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant operated by said company. Such discharges have produced the effect that the contaminated water that flows from the system into the Cañas River is not properly treated, transferring contaminating elements to that water resource. The argument that the system does not function anyway and that there are other sources of contamination in the environment is not acceptable, as this does not eliminate the contaminating nature of the waste discharged by the company into the Cañas lagoon system and the circumstance that this system is not built to treat waste from industrial processes but only domestic ones. Consequently, the operation of the cited company constitutes an additional amount of contamination that affects the right of the inhabitants of the area to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The serious efforts of the company to reduce the contaminating effect of its current waste and to build a new processing plant that fully complies with the requirements of the case must be recognized, but the harmful environmental effect of the activities it has carried out up to now in the canton of Cañas cannot therefore be ignored.\n\nIt seems clear that the sole cause of the malfunctioning of the Cañas lagoon system is not the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since there are operational problems inherent to the facilities which, in order to be resolved, require tasks such as reconditioning the inflows and outflows of the lagoons to improve hydraulic conditions, as expressly noted in the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. However, this does not exempt the aforementioned company from any liability for discharging its wastewater into that domestic water treatment system, nor does it exempt the respondent entities that allowed it from liability. In short, the waste discharges that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. poured into the Cañas lagoon system constitute an additional, technically inadequate, pollution load, which must be added to the system's own operating conditions, and which ultimately contributed to the contamination of the water resource in the area. Based on the foregoing, the appeal must be granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease receiving wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. in the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipalidad de Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the acts that serve as the basis for this ruling, which shall be liquidated during the execution of the administrative litigation judgment.\n\nPOR TANTO.\n\nThe appeal is granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease receiving wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. in the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipalidad de Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the acts that serve as the basis for this ruling, which shall be liquidated during the execution of the administrative litigation judgment.\n\nLuis Fernando Solano C.\n\nPresidente a.i.\n\nLuis Paulino Mora M.Eduardo Sancho G.\n\nCarlos Arguedas R.Adrián Vargas B.\n\nJosé Luis Molina Q.Susana Castro A.\n\nfiled a motion for reconsideration on August 17, 1998, against the act of the Executive Presidency of AyA, alleging that it had been discharging wastewater into the lagoon system of Cañas for more than six years and that, furthermore, it had not been sufficiently concluded that said company was in breach of the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales: said motion was granted because the appellant was correct. The informant points out that officials of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados have held constant meetings with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., in order to seek alternative solutions to the problem raised, and within that context, that institution has committed to expanding and improving the existing oxidation lagoon, for which the respective administrative bidding procedures are being carried out. It consequently requests that the appeal be dismissed.\n\n9.- By means of a brief dated May 26, 1999, visible on folio 570, those who claim to be members of the Committee \"Proyecto Ríos Limpios\" of the Pastoral Social of the Diocese of Tilarán ratify the grounds for this amparo. They state that in the neighborhoods of Cañas there are various cases of people suffering from illnesses related to the contamination of the oxidation lagoons of that locality. They request that an end be put to this harmful contamination and that the rights of the citizens be upheld.\n\n10.- By means of briefs on folios 573 and 574, dated May 26 and May 16, 1999, respectively, residents of the community of Cañas express their support for the filing of this amparo. They state that for a long time they have suffered the contamination problems caused by bad odors and overflows from the oxidation lagoons of that locality, a problem that they attribute to the contamination generated by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which discharges its industrial waste without any treatment. They state that the company's facilities do not have a liquid waste treatment plant, and that waste is discharged without any treatment into the sewage treatment lagoons. They point out that it is proven that fish waste is incompatible with the lagoon system designed to treat sewage, which is why the activity of the aforementioned company has caused extremely high levels of organic contamination and enormous levels of fecal coliforms. That situation is serious because a few kilometers downstream on the Cañas River, there are rural communities like La Libertad and Barrio Hotel that supply their domestic needs with those waters, which has caused serious illnesses, and that even in August 1998, one of such communities suffered an outbreak of hepatitis A. They state that there have been multiple warnings to the company to properly treat its waste, but that despite an order from the Ministry of Health in August 1998 to close operations, the economic power is such that the Minister, acting against technical recommendations, suspended the sanitary order. They request that the respondent company be ordered to respect national laws, and that the right of the inhabitants not to become ill due to the contamination generated by the respondent's operation be recognized.\n\n11.- By means of a brief dated May 30, 1999, visible on folio 588, the Defensora de los Habitantes de la República, presents a coadjuvancy brief in favor of the appellant based on the following arguments. That Office of the Ombudsman, in response to the complaint filed by Mr. Nombre182329 , followed case file 634-23-98, issuing the final report that was communicated to the responsible authorities through notes DHR-9901057-99, DHR-9901055-99, DHR-9901054-99, DHR-9901059-99, and DHR-9901056-99, all dated January 28, 1999. In that investigation, the problem of contamination of the Cañas River was proven, caused by the malfunctioning of the \"lagoon system\" for the treatment of urban sewage and wastewater from that city, the main responsibility for which lies with the authorities of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados and the Ministry of Health, since, along with the Municipalidad de Cañas, they have tolerated irregular situations that have been verified. The problem raised must be analyzed in an integral manner, interrelating aspects such as land use (uso del suelo), industrial, agro-industrial, and agricultural production schemes, urban expansion, potable water supply for human consumption, irrigation needs, transportation and food supply, and the preservation of the biodiversity of the different ecosystems. The contamination of the surface waters of rivers and streams is further aggravated by the fact that it transports the contaminating agents to the marine environment. The problem of contamination of the Cañas River is a clear example of the above. The lagoon system of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados used in the city of Cañas is not in accordance with the current urban development, and to that must be added that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is engaged in tilapia processing, is operating without an adequate wastewater treatment system, thus depositing them in said lagoon system, causing the insufficiency of the system and contaminating the river with tilapia waste, oil, blood, and others. The coadjuvancy brief of the Office of the Ombudsman notes that according to chemical analyses performed by the Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados at the company's plant, from 1994 to November 1998, the parameters contained in Decreto Ejecutivo 26042-S-MINAE, which is the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales, were exceeded, especially in relation to chemical oxygen demand (a limit of 1000 mg/L is permitted, and the result was 1604 mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (a limit of 300 mg/L is permitted, and the result was 834 mg/L), level of fats and oils (the maximum level is 100, and the result was 1114), and suspended solids (a maximum level of 500 mg/L is permitted, and the result was 1221 mg/L). Also cited is a report dated August 5, 1998, by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, advisor to the Executive President of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, in which it is mentioned that the decrease in the efficiency of the Cañas lagoon system coincides with the start of operations at the tilapia processing plant.\n\nThe Office of the Ombudsman points out that the regulations applicable to the case, specifically Article 132 of the Ley de Conservación de la Fauna Silvestre, numeral 65 of the Ley Orgánica del Ambiente, and Article 285 and following of the Ley General de Salud, are consistent in that any individual or legal entity must be prohibited from contaminating surface, subterranean, and territorial marine waters, directly or indirectly, through the discharge of sewage or wastewater, so that they become a danger to the health of people and terrestrial and aquatic fauna, and therefore each industry must be required to implement an adequate wastewater treatment system. Consequently, the Ministry of Health, despite having concluded after the inspection of July 6, 1998, that the industry could not operate in the location where it was, did not execute the special closure measure contemplated in numeral 363 of the Ley General de Salud. Likewise, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, as the entity responsible for the sewage treatment plant of Cañas, was obligated to keep it in good condition, and therefore should not have agreed to receive wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since it does not have an adequate treatment system adjusted to current regulations. Consequently, in the opinion of the Office of the Ombudsman, Nombre5630 has been tolerant of a contamination situation to the detriment of the urban wastewater treatment service for the population of Cañas. Furthermore, the Office of the Ombudsman points out that the Municipalidad de Cañas should have had a more active participation in guaranteeing the protection of the community's natural resources, as indicated by the first numeral of the Ley de Construcciones. The Office of the Ombudsman concludes by noting that while it is true that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has presented a proposal for the relocation of the tilapia processing plant, and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is expanding and improving the lagoon system for treating urban wastewater in the canton of Cañas, it is concerning that as long as this does not materialize, the verified contamination indices in the waters of the Cañas River will remain constant.\n\nDrafted by Magistrate Arguedas Ramírez, and;\n\nCONSIDERANDO.\n\nI.- After analyzing the appeal, the reports rendered, and the documents provided, the Chamber considers that the following facts must be considered to adequately resolve the matter: a-) That the Cañas lagoon system was built in the mid-1970s for the purpose of purifying domestic wastewater and lacks the capacity to receive and adequately treat waste and wastewater from industrial or agro-industrial activities: the treated water is subsequently discharged through an open channel into the Cañas River, from whose course water is taken for several activities such as crop irrigation, among others. (see copy of the evaluation report of the Cañas lagoon system prepared by Eng. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales visible on folio 18 and following, copy of the report \"Análisis del manejo de las aguas residuales de la industria y de la ciudad de Cañas\" prepared by the company Consultores en Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria on folio 245 and following, as well as a copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, from folio 685 to 689 of this file). b-) That by official letter dated October 16, 1991, officials of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados gave the respective authorization for the company Nombre182328 to use the sanitary sewer system to discharge the wastewater resulting from the processing and slaughter of tilapia; that this authorization was given without any technical study to support it. (see photocopy of folio 341, and recommendations of the Evaluación del Sistema Lagunar de Cañas carried out by Lic. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, visible in photocopies of folios 18 to 26, especially folio 25 of this file). c-) That starting in 1992, the company Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A. began operating the tilapia processing plant, specifically at the facilities of Red de Frío in Cañas, province of Guanacaste (see report of the aforementioned company on folios 331 to 337). d-) That the wastewater disposal system of the tilapia processing plant operated by the cited company, from the start of operations, did not include a treatment plant that would ensure that the quality of the effluent entering the sewer system would not affect the proper functioning of the Cañas lagoon system, which allowed for a long time contaminants to be discharged in turn into the waters of the river of the same name. (see final report of the Defensoría de los Habitantes, regarding case file of that agency 0634-23-98, visible in photocopies of folios 720 to 734, as a copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, from folio 685 to 689). e-) After the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant, the efficiency levels of the lagoon wastewater treatment system of the city of Cañas declined notably, with evaluations carried out between 1994 and 1998 by the Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados detecting excesses regarding authorized parameters, especially in terms of chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, levels of fats, oils, and suspended solids; these levels appear to be increasing, showing extremely high figures by November 1998. (see coadjuvancy brief of the Defensoría de los Habitantes on folio 588 and following, photocopies of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, from folio 685 to 689, as well as a copy of resolution 252-98-TAA of the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo on folio 795 and following). f-) That in an evaluation carried out on February 11, 1997, by the Sección de Aguas Residuales of the Process of Water Quality of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, on the main discharge of the tilapia processing plant, the presence of fat, scales, blood, and pieces of fish skin was reported in the connection trap, warning at that time of the existence of another discharge of water with blood in another sector that reaches the sewer system; it was concluded at that time that the discharge from the tilapia processing plant does not comply with the maximum permissible limits to be discharged into the sanitary sewer system of AyA; the maximum limits are for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) 300 mg/L, for chemical oxygen demand (COD) 1000 mg/L, and for suspended solids 150 mg/L, while the values quantified in the evaluation are respectively 1000 mg/L, 11600 mg/L, and 338 mg/L; it was recommended in said evaluation not to accept connections from meat processing industries, even if they comply with the maximum BOD and COD limits, since the systems of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados should be prevalently for treating domestic wastewater. (see photocopies of the cited evaluation on folios 18 to 26). g-) That by resolution at fifteen hours on August 11, 1998, the Executive Presidency of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA), for the grounds set forth therein, ordered to cease receiving the wastewater from the industrial processing of tilapia by Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., granting a period of eight days from notification to make the decision effective: by virtue of an appeal filed by the mentioned company, by resolution at sixteen hours on August 17 of that same year, it was ordered to make the mentioned measure effective until September 3, 1998. (see report of the Executive President of Nombre5630 on folio 497 and following, and copy of resolutions on folios 522 to 525 and 528 to 530). h-) By means of a sanitary order notified on August 14, 1998, the Ministry of Health ordered the suspension of the processing and packaging of tilapia within a period of fifteen days, as well as proceeding to relocate the processing plant itself, for which a period of three months was granted; the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. filed a motion for reconsideration against this sanitary order; subsequently, by virtue of an agreement reached on August 17, 1998, in the presence of Congresswoman Irene Urpí between the Minister of Health, the Executive Presidency of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, the Municipalidad de Cañas, and a representative of the said company, it was agreed to grant the latter a period until September 3, 1998, to present a proposal for the modification of the oxidation lagoons of Cañas, so that if the proposal were admissible, an additional period of 16 months would be granted for its implementation and for the construction of a new tilapia processing plant: consequently, by official letter DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministry of Health decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. (see copy of official letter UPC-CES-146-98 on folio 35, copy of the signed agreement on folios 127 and 128, report of the Acting Minister of Health on folio 306 and following, copy of official letter UPC-CAH-682-99 on folio 316 to 320, copy of sanitary order on folio 327, as well as report from Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. visible from folio 331 to 337). i-) That the Municipalidad de Cañas, by means of a public letter dated August 14, 1998, signed by the President and the Municipal Mayor, addressed to the ministries of Ambiente y Energía, Salud, and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, considering that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has collaborated importantly in improving the standard of living of the residents of that area, that it represents an important source of income for the neighbors and of foreign currency for the public treasury, and taking into account that said company received a notification from the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados stating that the deposit of the company's residual waters in the oxidation lagoon of Cañas would no longer be permitted, which entails the closure of the company, agreed to support the cited company to continue operations in the canton of Cañas, and to deplore the attitude of communal groups and sensationalist press that have overblown the existing problem. (see copy of the cited letter on folios 238 and 239.) j-) Likewise, the Municipalidad de Cañas, in session 70-99 of April 19, 1999, unanimously agreed to support the efforts that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. is undertaking to operate at the facilities of Red de Frío in that canton, while the definitive relocation to a new processing plant is carried out. (see photocopy of folio 216). k-) That by official letter UPC-PSF-0514-99 of April 29, 1999, the Unidad de Permisos y Controles of the Ministry of Health granted the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. a period of three months to implement the necessary measures to definitively resolve the sanitary problems generated by the operation of the tilapia processing plant. (see report of the Vice-Minister of Health on folios 306 to 310, and copy of official letter on folio 455). l-) Despite the fact that by official letter number ACT-SC-185-99 of May 7, 1999, the Head of the Subregional Office in Cañas of the Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía, points out that by then the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. was no longer discharging its water into the oxidation lagoon, but rather all waste was collected and transported to a farm owned by the company where it is treated in an oxidation lagoon of the processing plant, there are documents provided by the appellant from which data can be extracted pointing in another direction, since as can be gathered from the observation logs kept at the oxidation lagoons of Cañas during the month of April 1999 – the last entry provided is from April 21 of this year – by the end of that month, skins and guts of tilapia were still being collected at the site. (see photocopies of work logs in the lagoon system of Cañas on folios 103 to 108, and photocopy of official letter visible on folio 794).\n\nII.- In the present amparo, the issue of the interrelationship between the development of productive activities, in this case the processing of tilapia for export, and respect for the environment is raised. Within that context, the appellant challenges the position maintained in the face of this problem by the producing company, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipalidad de Cañas.\n\nIII.- As can be deduced from the recitation of facts in the preceding considerando, the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is engaged in the production and processing of tilapia for export, began its operations in 1992 at the facilities of Red de Frío de Cañas, located in that canton of the province of Guanacaste. To begin its operations, it was authorized, without any prior technical study, by the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados to discharge its wastewater into the sewer system whose initial destination is the system of oxidation lagoons of Cañas, a system that drains into the river of the same name and whose waters flow into the Gulf of Nicoya. Once the operation of the tilapia processing plant began, the lagoon system of Cañas, which was designed exclusively for the treatment of wastewater of domestic origin, markedly decreased its efficiency levels, with measurements taken between 1994 and 1998 detecting high levels of the biological and chemical oxygen demands entering the system, which indicates an overload of the lagoon, also resulting in the contaminating load of said plant being far superior to that of the population of Cañas covered by the sanitary sewer system that discharges into the lagoon. While it is true that there are several other contaminating causes of the Cañas River, as the respondent company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. rightly points out, the fact that the operation of the tilapia processing plant is another contaminating element that aggravates the existing situation cannot be ignored. Faced with this problem, the Ministry of Health in mid-August 1998 ordered, by means of a sanitary order, the suspension of the tilapia processing and packaging activity and the relocation of the processing plant to another site that met the sanitary requirements. However, after a meeting held a few days later with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, and the Municipalidad de Cañas, that ministry decided to render the said closure order without effect. For its part, the Municipalidad de Cañas, despite considering the existence of environmental contamination problems, has strongly supported the operation of the tilapia processing plant through its actions and statements, considering primarily the importance that this operation has for the economic development of the area.\n\nIV.- It must be considered that the rights to life and health, as well as the right to enjoy a healthy environment, are all guaranteed at a fundamental level in the Magna Carta, so that any economic criterion that one wishes to apply in a specific case must yield in importance to the former. From that perspective, the exercise of the rights to work and to develop a productive activity necessarily must be framed within respect for other fundamental rights such as the right to a healthy environment and the right to health. Article 50 of the Constitución Política clearly states that the State must guarantee, defend, and preserve the right of the country's inhabitants to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The guaranteeing action that the State must carry forward implies ensuring the existence of conditions that allow for the emergence of environmentally pure vital spaces; the preserving action entails preventing the activities that habitually and normally are developed in those vital spaces from deteriorating their environmental conditions; the defending action implies impeding any activity that, carried out beyond the normality parameters of daily life, decidedly affects the quality of the environment. The action that the Constitución Política imposes on the State in the face of environmental contamination sources is multidirectional and definitively active, absolutely intolerant of situations that threaten or affect the optimal environmental conditions that are guaranteed by it to the inhabitants. From this perspective, public authorities are not permitted to make concessions or grant extensions to continue affecting the environment, even if this is done with a view to bringing economic benefits to a specific geographical area. In this specific case, there is no doubt whatsoever that the company Nombre182328 Internacional has become an important focus of development in the canton of Cañas, generating more than four hundred direct jobs and constituting an important source of income through taxes for both the central administration and the municipal government of the canton. This has been expressly recognized by the Municipalidad de Cañas, which has expressed its support for the operation of the said company, especially considering the economic significance it holds for the region. It is also evident that, possibly in consideration of this characteristic of the company, both the Municipalidad de Cañas, the Ministry of Health, and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados have acted passively in the face of the environmental problems produced by the operation of the tilapia processing plant, because they have not acted in a decided and energetic manner to suspend the contaminating causes generated by that productive process. With regard to the Municipalidad de Cañas, out of consideration for criteria of economic and social benefit for the inhabitants of the canton, it has decidedly expressed itself in favor of authorizing the continuation of the activities of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., without considering that those operations under the conditions in which they had been taking place constituted a major focus of environmental contamination, since wastewater with solid matter was discharged into oxidation lagoons that could not efficiently assimilate such discharges, causing deficient functioning of the domestic wastewater treatment system of that locality. As the fifth numeral of the current Ley de Construcciones states, the Municipalities are responsible for ensuring that cities and towns meet the necessary conditions of safety and healthiness in their public roads, buildings, and constructions: this charge becomes an obligation of unavoidable fulfillment when it is related to the aforementioned numeral 50 of the Constitución Política. Consequently, municipal corporations cannot disregard the well-being of the inhabitants of their canton in those aspects that, like the environment, affect people's quality of life. Neither is the criterion of contrasting, and giving greater value to, purely economic matters such as the per capita income of the inhabitants against their right to enjoy a healthy environment acceptable: it is senseless to direct state activity toward obtaining high employment levels while sacrificing the purity of the environment, because without the latter, the former is worthless. Hence, the Chamber considers that the Municipalidad de Cañas has acted permissively, tolerating, and even fostering with its public statements, the operation of an industrial company whose waste contaminates the environment, especially water resources, for the sake of maintaining a supposed social well-being that is limited to the economic aspect and leaves aside even more fundamental issues. With regard to the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, it has been duly proven that, without having the technical studies to permit it, in October 1991 it authorized the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. to use the sanitary sewer system, designed to receive domestic waste, and to deposit there the wastewater generated by its productive process. It is clear to the Chamber that, even if such industrial wastewater discharges had respected the maximum permitted contaminant levels, their reception into the lagoon system exceeded the planned operational possibilities, which ultimately contributed to the deficient functioning of the system. Likewise, the Executive President of AyA, by resolution at fifteen hours on August 11, 1998, ordered to cease receiving the wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.: however, in consideration of the meeting held between the representative of Nombre5630, the cited company, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipalidad de Cañas, the Executive President of the first entity ordered, by resolution at fifteen hours on August 11, 1998, to temporarily suspend the order not to receive more wastewater, stating that it would not be executed until September 3, 1998, awaiting the company's proposal as agreed at that meeting.\n\nThus, the lack of decisive action to put an end to the reception of polluting waste that the Cañas lagoon system is not capable of processing is evident: the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados therefore violates the constitutionally imposed obligation to preserve and defend the environment. Regarding the Ministerio de Salud, although this institution carried out controls and even issued sanitary closure orders against the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., it did not carry out decisive action to prevent the continuation of the polluting discharges that said company made into the Cañas lagoon system. As the Acting Minister of Health rightly points out in her report, in August 1998, upon verifying physical-sanitary deficiencies, a sanitary order was issued tending to definitively suspend tilapia processing at the site where it was being carried out, and relocation to another site that met the requirements of the case was ordered; but the reproach is based on the fact that said order was never executed, given that said ministry, in light of a meeting held with representatives of the aforementioned company, the Ministerio de Ambiente, and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, set it aside and granted a deadline expiring on September 3, 1998, for the company to present a proposal to solve the environmental problem, a proposal which, if admissible, would entail an extension of the deadline by another sixteen months so that the company could finish the construction of a new processing plant: consequently, through official communication DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministerio de Salud decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. As previously noted, this Chamber considers that addressing environmental impact problems cannot be postponed, such that it is not possible for public entities to authorize the continuation of the polluting action for a determined period, resorting to criteria such as those previously set forth that only take into account the economic importance of the pollution source and disregard the polluting effect itself. Consequently, it must be concluded that the Ministerio de Salud has acted in this matter, not in the active manner imposed by numeral 50 of the Constitución Política, but in a tolerant manner regarding the source of contamination represented by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. Finally, as for this company, it is evident, even by its own admission in the report rendered, that since 1992 it has been discharging its wastewater (aguas residuales) with organic matter into the domestic wastewater treatment system operated by the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados in the canton of Cañas. That lagoon system is not designed to handle wastewater (aguas residuales) from industrial processes, and therefore the system's efficiency levels declined markedly from the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant operated by said company. Such discharges have produced the effect that the contaminated waters that flow out of the system toward the Río Cañas are not properly treated, transferring polluting elements to that water resource. The argument that the system does not work on its own and that there are other sources of pollution in the environment is not acceptable, as this does not eliminate the polluting nature of the waste discharged by the company into the Cañas lagoon system, nor the circumstance that this system is not built to treat waste from industrial processes but only domestic ones. Consequently, the operation of the cited company constitutes an additional pollution load (plus de contaminación) that affects the right of the zone's inhabitants to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The serious efforts of the company to reduce the polluting effect of its current waste and to build a new processing plant that fully meets the requirements of the case must be recognized, but the harmful environmental effect of the activities it has carried out up to now in the canton of Cañas cannot therefore be ignored. It seems clear that the sole cause of the malfunction of the Cañas lagoon system is not the reception of wastewater (aguas residuales) from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since there are operational problems inherent to the facilities that, to be solved, require tasks such as reconditioning the inlets and outlets of the lagoons to improve hydraulic conditions, as expressly noted in the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. But this does not exempt the cited company from any liability for discharging its wastewater (aguas residuales) into that domestic water treatment system, nor does it exempt the respondent entities that allowed it from liability. Ultimately, the waste discharges that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. poured into the Cañas lagoon system constitute an additional pollution load (plus de contaminación), technically inadequate, which must be added to the system's own operating conditions, which ultimately contributed to the contamination of the zone's water resource. Based on the foregoing, the appeal must be granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease the reception of wastewater (aguas residuales) from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. into the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipalidad de Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the facts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the execution of the judgment in the administrative contentious jurisdiction.\n\nPOR TANTO.\n\nThe appeal is granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease the reception of wastewater (aguas residuales) from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. into the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipalidad de Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the facts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the execution of the judgment in the administrative contentious jurisdiction.\n\nLuis Fernando Solano C.\n\nActing President\n\nLuis Paulino Mora M.Eduardo Sancho G.\n\nCarlos Arguedas R.Adrián Vargas B.\n\nJosé Luis Molina Q.Susana Castro A.\n\nThus, a series of screens and grates were installed inside the plant, additional personnel were hired, water cleaning and filtering routines were implemented; in 1998 the dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank system was implemented to separate fat and protein from the water, and in January 1999 the process of separating water from blood by means of coagulation and sedimentation began: such actions managed to reduce the contaminant load of the chemical oxygen demand and the biological oxygen demand by 50%, and it was within that context of seeking a solution to the problem that the decision was made to build a new processing plant through the company Terrapez S.A. The informant notes that in August 1998 the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. promoted a meeting between the Minister of Health, the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, a representative of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the President of the Municipal Council of Cañas, with the aim of reaching a solution to the problem of the company's wastewater and the lack of capacity of the AyA lagoons. On that occasion, an agreement was signed whereby the company committed to proposing a solution to the problem within fifteen days, and if the proposed solution was feasible, a period of sixteen months would be granted for the construction of the new plant. Within such timeframes, a proposal was made to Nombre5630 consisting not only of the substantial improvement of the wastewater, but also the purchase and operation of aerators and electrical installations; said institution formulated a counterproposal that would mean a permanent solution to the problem, which the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. accepted in the sense that the latter committed to acquiring five hectares of land adjacent to the current lagoons, but this could not materialize because the owner excessively increased the price of the property; it was then agreed that Nombre5630 would proceed with the expropriation of the land and the aforementioned company would be responsible for the construction of the lagoon; the expropriation process began, the respective publication was made in the Gazette of February 23, 1999, and the reporting company hired the company CAVESA for the earthworks (movimientos de tierra) of twenty thousand cubic meters of earth to build the aforementioned lagoon. On the other hand, as mentioned before, the legal representative of the respondent company indicates that the installation of a wastewater treatment system has already been contracted with the company Amanco, which will be operating as of June 17, 1999: this is because, despite the company's efforts, it has not been possible to comply with the minimums established in the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales. The informant points out that it is true that the Nombre5630 lagoons in Cañas, built in 1958, are not capable of receiving the waters of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., but neither are they capable of receiving the city's waters, so the discharge of the company's waters is not the primary or essential factor in the poor functioning of the lagoons. He indicates that the contamination of the Cañas River has several causes, and it is not only the company's activity that causes the reported problem. Regarding the existence of the environmental impact assessments (evaluaciones de impacto ambiental), it is reported that when the company began its operations, such a requirement did not exist, but that the study has now been completed and submitted to SETENA. An environmental management plan that includes solid waste management has also been submitted to the authorities of the Ministry of Health. It is also true that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. operates in the Red de Frío of the Ministry of Finance, but it does so under a contract signed with the concessionaire company Consorcio Poder del Mar S.A. It is not true that the respondent company lacks a permit from the Ministry of Health, since that ministry has granted, as of April 29, 1999, a three-month period to comply with the requirements of the decree regarding Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Industriales, so it has operating authorization until the established date. For the foregoing reasons, given that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has acted responsibly to fully comply with the demands and requirements specific to its operation, it requests that the appeal be dismissed as premature, given that there are valid periods within which compliance with such aspects will be achieved.\n\n8.- The Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers reports that his represented entity is responsible for controlling the quality of the water that the population discharges into the sanitary sewer system. For some time, a tilapia processing plant has been connected to the Cañas oxidation system, which discharges its liquid waste there: he points out that it is not advisable for this type of industry to connect to a lagoon system near a city because the fresh protein in its waste, when deposited without prior treatment, releases unpleasant odors, in addition to affecting lagoon efficiency. The Cañas water treatment system was designed to treat exclusively domestic wastewater and not waste from meat industries. Furthermore, due to the enactment of new regulations, the current effluent from the lagoon system does not meet the requirements demanded by the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales. Due to complaints from users highlighting the problems of evacuation and treatment of Cañas wastewater, on August 11, 1998, a resolution was adopted whereby the discharge of sludge from septic tanks into the sanitary sewers and lagoon systems of the Chorotega region was immediately halted, as well as the reception of wastewater from the industrial processing of tilapia by the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. Given that this company committed to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers to present a proposal for modifying the use of the oxidation lagoons, that Executive Presidency, through a resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August eleventh, nineteen ninety-eight, agreed to extend the deadline for ceasing the reception of wastewater, in order to analyze the company's proposal. The President of the Board of Directors of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. filed a revocation appeal on August 17, 1998, against the act of the Executive Presidency of AyA, arguing that it has been discharging wastewater into the Cañas lagoon system for more than six years and that, furthermore, it had not been sufficiently concluded that said company failed to comply with the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales: said appeal was accepted because the appellant was correct. The informant indicates that officials of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers have held constant meetings with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., in order to seek alternative solutions to the problem raised, and within that context, this institution has committed to expanding and improving the existing oxidation lagoon, for which the respective administrative bidding procedures are being carried out. Consequently, it requests that the appeal be dismissed.\n\n9.- By means of a brief dated May 26, 1999, visible on folio 570, those who claim to be members of the Committee \"Proyecto Ríos Limpios\" of the Social Ministry of the Diocese of Tilarán, ratify the basis of this amparo. They state that in the neighborhoods of Cañas there are diverse cases of people suffering from illnesses related to the contamination of the oxidation lagoons of that locality. They ask that an end be put to this harmful contamination and that the rights of citizens be upheld.\n\n10.- By means of briefs on folios 573 and 574, dated May 26 and 16, 1999, respectively, residents of the community of Cañas state their support for the filing of this amparo. They state that for a long time they have suffered from contamination problems caused by bad odors and overflows from the oxidation lagoons of that locality, a problem they attribute to the contamination generated by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which discharges its industrial waste without any treatment. They state that the company's facilities do not have a liquid waste treatment plant, and that waste is discharged without any treatment into the sewage treatment lagoons. They point out that it is established that fish waste is incompatible with the lagoon system designed to treat sewage, which is why the activity of the cited company has caused very high levels of organic contamination and enormous levels of fecal coliforms. This situation is serious because a few kilometers downstream of the Cañas River, there are rural communities such as La Libertad and Barrio Hotel that meet their domestic needs with those waters, which has caused serious illnesses, and in August 1998 one of such communities even suffered an outbreak of hepatitis A. They state that there have been multiple warnings to the company to properly treat its waste, but that despite an order from the Ministry of Health in August 1998 to close operations, the economic power is such that the Minister, acting against technical recommendations, suspended the health order. They request that the respondent company be ordered to respect national laws and that the right of the inhabitants not to become ill due to the contamination generated by the respondent's operation be recognized.\n\n11.- By means of a brief dated May 30, 1999, visible on folio 588, the Ombudsperson of the Republic files a joinder in favor of the appellant based on the following arguments. Said Ombudsman's Office, in response to the complaint filed by Mr. Nombre182329, followed file 634-23-98, issuing the final report that was communicated to the responsible authorities through notes DHR-9901057-99, DHR-9901055-99, DHR-9901054-99, DHR-9901059-99 and DHR-9901056-99, all dated January 28, 1999. In said investigation, the problem of contamination of the Cañas River due to the poor functioning of the \"lagoon system\" for the treatment of sewage and urban wastewater of that city was verified, the primary responsibility for which falls on the authorities of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers and the Ministry of Health, since together with the Municipality of Cañas they have tolerated irregular situations that have been confirmed. The problem raised must be analyzed comprehensively, interrelating aspects such as land use, industrial, agro-industrial, and agricultural production schemes, urban expansion, the supply of potable water for human consumption, irrigation, transportation, and food needs, and the preservation of the biodiversity of the different ecosystems. The contamination of the surface waters of rivers and streams is aggravated by the fact that it transfers contaminating agents to the marine environment. The Cañas River contamination problem is a clear example of the above. The lagoon system of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers used in the city of Cañas is not in line with the current urban development, and it must be added that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is engaged in tilapia processing, is operating without an adequate wastewater treatment system, and therefore deposits them in said lagoon system, causing the insufficiency of the system and contaminating the river with tilapia waste, oil, blood, and others. The Ombudsman's Office's joinder indicates that according to chemical analyses carried out by the National Water Laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers at the company's plant, from 1994 until November 1998, the parameters contained in Decreto Ejecutivo 26042-S-MINAE, which is the Reglamento de Vertido y Reuso de Aguas Residuales, are exceeded, especially in relation to the chemical oxygen demand (1000 mg/L allowed and the result was 1604 mg/L), the biochemical oxygen demand (300 mg/L allowed and the result was 834 mg/L), level of fats and oils (the maximum level is 100 and the result was 1114), and suspended solids (a maximum level of 500 mg/L is allowed and the result was 1221 mg/L). Also cited is a report dated August 5, 1998, by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, which mentions that the decrease in the efficiency of the Cañas lagoon system coincides with the start of the tilapia processing plant's operation.\n\nThe Ombudsman's Office points out that the regulations applicable to the case, specifically article 132 of the Ley de Conservación de la Fauna Silvestre, numeral 65 of the Ley Orgánica del Ambiente, and article 285 and following of the Ley General de Salud, are consistent in that any natural or legal person must be prohibited from contaminating surface, underground, and territorial marine waters, directly or indirectly, through the discharge of sewage or wastewater, such that they become a danger to the health of people, terrestrial and aquatic fauna, and therefore each industry must be required to implement an adequate wastewater treatment system. Consequently, the Ministry of Health, despite having concluded after the inspection of July 6, 1998, that the industry could not operate in the location where it is found, did not execute the special closure measure contemplated in numeral 363 of the Ley General de Salud. Likewise, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, as the entity responsible for the Cañas sewage treatment plant, was obliged to maintain it in good condition, and therefore should not have accepted receiving wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since it does not have an adequate treatment system adjusted to the current regulations; consequently, in the Ombudsman's Office's opinion, Nombre5630 has been tolerant of a contamination situation to the detriment of the urban wastewater treatment service for the population of Cañas. On the other hand, the Ombudsman's Office indicates that the Municipality of Cañas should have had a more active participation in guaranteeing the protection of the community's natural resources, as indicated by the first numeral of the Ley de Construcciones. The Ombudsman's Office concludes by noting that, although it is true the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has presented a proposal to relocate the tilapia processing plant, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers is expanding and improving the lagoon system for treating urban wastewater in the canton of Cañas, it is concerning that as long as this does not materialize, the already verified contamination indices in the waters of the Cañas River will remain constant.\n\nDrafted by Magistrate Arguedas Ramírez, and;\n\nCONSIDERANDO.\n\nI.- After analyzing the appeal, the reports rendered, and the documents provided, the Chamber believes that the following facts must be considered to adequately resolve the matter: a-) That the Cañas lagoon system was built in the mid-1970s, with the purpose of purifying domestic wastewater and lacks the capacity to receive and adequately treat waste and wastewater typical of industrial or agro-industrial activities: the treated waters are discharged in turn through an open channel into the Cañas River, from whose channel waters are taken for various activities such as crop irrigation, among others. (see copy of the evaluation report of the Cañas lagoon system prepared by Engineer José Miguel Ramírez Corrales visible on folio 18 and following, copy of the report \"Análisis del manejo de las aguas residuales de la industria y de la ciudad de Cañas\" prepared by the company Consultores en Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria from folio 245 and following, as well as a copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689 of this file). b-) That by official communication dated October 16, 1991, officials of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers gave the respective authorization for the company Nombre182328 to use the sanitary sewer network to discharge wastewater resulting from the process and slaughter of tilapia: said authorization was given without any technical study to support it. (see photocopy of folio 341, and recommendations from the Evaluación del Sistema Lagunar de Cañas carried out by Lic. José Miguel Ramírez Corrales of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, visible in photocopies from folios 18 to 26 especially folio 25 of this file). c-) That starting in 1992, the company Aqua Corporación Internacional S.A. began the operation of the tilapia processing plant, specifically in the facilities of the Red de Frío in Cañas, province of Guanacaste (see report of the cited company from folios 331 to 337). d-) That the disposal system for the wastewater from the tilapia processing plant operated by the cited company, from the start of operations, did not include the existence of a treatment plant that would allow the quality of the effluent into the sewer system not to affect the proper functioning of the Cañas lagoon system, which made it possible for a long time for contaminating waste to be discharged in turn into the waters of the river of the same name. (see final report of the Ombudsman's Office, referring to file 0634-23-98 of that office, visible in photocopies from folios 720 to 734, as well as a copy of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689). e-) Subsequent to the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant, the efficiency levels of the lagoon water treatment system of the city of Cañas declined notably, detecting in evaluations carried out between the years 1994 and 1998 by the National Water Laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, that there were excesses with respect to the authorized parameters, especially regarding chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, levels of fats, oils, and suspended solids: said levels appear to be increasing, showing extremely high numbers by November 1998. (see joinder brief of the Ombudsman's Office from folio 588 and following, photocopies of the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras, Advisor to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, from folio 685 to 689, as well as a copy of resolution 252-98-TAA of the Administrative Environmental Tribunal from folio 795 and following). f-) That in an evaluation carried out on February 11, 1997, by the Wastewater Section of the Water Quality Process of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, on the main discharge of the tilapia processing plant, the presence of grease, scales, blood, and pieces of fish skin was reported in the connection ash pit, warning at that time of the existence of another discharge of water with blood in another sector that reaches the sewer system; it was concluded at that time that the discharge from the tilapia processing plant does not meet the maximum permissible limits for discharge into the AyA sanitary sewer; the maximum limits are for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) 300 mg/L, for chemical oxygen demand (COD) 1000 mg/L, and for suspended solids 150 mg/L, while the values quantified in the evaluation are respectively 1000 mg/L, 11600 mg/L, and 338 mg/L; it was recommended in said evaluation not to accept connections from meat industries, even if they meet the maximum BOD and COD limits, since the systems of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers should predominantly be for treating domestic wastewater. (see photocopies of the cited evaluation from folios 18 to 26). g-) That by resolution at three o'clock on August eleventh, nineteen ninety-eight, the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), for the reasons set forth therein, ordered the cessation of the reception of wastewater from the industrial processing of tilapia by Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., granting a period of eight days from the notification to make the decision effective: by virtue of an appeal filed by the cited company, by resolution at four o'clock on August seventeenth of that same year, it was ordered to make the cited measure effective until September 3, 1998. (see report of the Executive President of Nombre5630 from folio 497 and following, and copy of resolutions from folios 522 to 525 and 528 to 530). h-) By means of a health order notified on August 14, 1998, the Ministry of Health ordered the suspension of the processing and packaging of tilapia within fifteen days, as well as proceeding to relocate the processing plant itself, for which a period of three months was granted; the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. filed a revocation appeal against that health order; subsequently, by virtue of an agreement reached on August 17, 1998, in the presence of Deputy Irene Urpí among the Minister of Health, the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Municipality of Cañas, and a representative of the cited company, it was agreed to grant the latter a deadline until September 3, 1998, to present a proposal for modifying the oxidation lagoons of Cañas, so that if the proposal was admissible, an additional period of 16 months would be granted for its implementation and for the construction of a new tilapia processing plant: consequently, by official communication DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministry of Health decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. (see copy of official communication UPC-CES-146-98 from folio 35, copy of the signed agreement on folios 127 and 128, report of the Acting Minister of Health from folio 306 and following, copy of official communication UPC-CAH-682-99 from folio 316 to 320, copy of health order from folio 327, as well as report of Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. visible from folio 331 to 337). i-) That the Municipality of Cañas, by public letter dated August 14, 1998, signed by the President and the Municipal Mayor, addressed to the ministries of Environment and Energy, Health, and the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, considering that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. has collaborated significantly in improving the standard of living of the residents of that area, that it represents an important source of income for residents and foreign currency for the public treasury, and taking into account that said company received a notification from the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers stating that the deposit of the company's wastewater in the Cañas oxidation lagoon would no longer be permitted, which entails the shutdown of the company, agreed to support the cited company so that it continues operations in the canton of Cañas, and to deplore the attitude of community groups and the yellow press that have exaggerated the existing problem. (see copy of the cited letter on folios 238 and 239.) j-) Likewise, the Municipality of Cañas, in session 70-99 of April 19, 1999, unanimously agreed to support the efforts that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. is making to operate in the facilities of the Red de Frío in that canton, while the definitive relocation to a new processing plant is carried out. (see photocopy of folio 216). k-) That by official communication UPC-PSF-0514-99 of April 29, 1999, the Permits and Controls Unit of the Ministry of Health granted the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. a period of three months to implement the necessary measures to definitively resolve the health problems generated by the operation of the tilapia processing plant. (see report of the Vice Minister of Health from folios 306 to 310, and copy of official communication from folio 455). l-) Despite the fact that, by official communication number ACT-SC-185-99 of May 7, 1999, the Head of the Subregional Office in Cañas of the Ministry of Environment and Energy points out that by then the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. was no longer discharging its waters into the oxidation lagoon but rather that all waste is collected and transported to a farm owned by the company where it is treated in an oxidation lagoon of the processing plant, there are documents provided by the appellant from which data pointing in another direction emerge, since, as inferred from the observation logs kept at the Cañas oxidation lagoons during the month of April 1999 - the last entry provided is from April 21 of this year - by the end of that month, tilapia skins and guts were still being collected at the site. (see photocopies of work logs in the Cañas lagoon system from folios 103 to 108, and photocopy of official communication visible on folio 794).\n\nII.- In the present amparo, the issue raised is the interrelationship between the development of productive activities, in this case the processing of tilapia for export, and respect for the environment. Within this context, the appellant challenges the position that the producing company, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipality of Cañas have maintained regarding this problem.\n\nIII.- As is evident from the factual account in the preceding Considerando, the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., which is engaged in the production and processing of tilapia for export, began its operations in 1992 at the facilities of the Red de Frío of Cañas, located in that canton of the province of Guanacaste. To begin its operations, it was authorized, without any prior technical study, by the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers to discharge its wastewater into the sewer system whose initial destination is the oxidation lagoon system of Cañas, a system that drains into the river of the same name and whose waters flow into the Gulf of Nicoya. Once the operation of the tilapia processing plant began, the Cañas lagoon system, which was designed exclusively for the treatment of domestic wastewater, notably decreased its efficiency levels, with elevated levels of biological and chemical oxygen demands entering the system detected in measurements taken between 1994 and 1998, indicating an overload of the lagoon, and also revealing that the contaminant load from said plant is much higher than that of the population of Cañas covered by the sanitary sewer that discharges into the lagoon. Although it is true that there are other various causes of contamination in the Cañas River, as the respondent company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. rightly points out, the fact cannot be ignored that the operation of the tilapia processing plant is a further contaminating element that aggravates the existing situation. Faced with this problem, in mid-August 1998, the Ministry of Health ordered, through a health order, the suspension of the tilapia processing and packaging activity and the relocation of the processing plant to another site that met the health requirements. However, subsequent to a meeting held a few days later with representatives of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, and the Municipality of Cañas, that ministry decided to leave the cited closure order without effect. For its part, the Municipality of Cañas, despite considering the existence of environmental contamination problems, has with its actions and communiqués decisively supported the operation of the tilapia processing plant, considering primarily the importance that this operation has for the economic development of the area.\n\nIV.- It must be considered that the rights to life and health, as well as the right to enjoy a healthy environment, are all guaranteed at a fundamental level in the Magna Carta, such that any economic criterion that one might wish to apply in a specific case must yield in importance to the former. From that perspective, the exercise of the rights to work and to develop a productive activity must necessarily be framed within respect for other fundamental rights, such as the right to a healthy environment and the right to health. Article 50 of the Political Constitution clearly indicates that the State must guarantee, defend, and preserve the right of the country's inhabitants to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The guaranteeing action that the State must carry out implies ensuring the existence of conditions that allow for the emergence of environmentally pure vital spaces; the preserving action entails preventing the activities that habitually and normally take place in those vital spaces from worsening their environmental conditions; the defending action implies preventing any activity that, carried out beyond the normal parameters of daily life, decisively affects the quality of the environment. The action that the Political Constitution imposes on the State against sources of environmental contamination is multidirectional and definitively active, absolutely intolerant of situations that threaten or affect the optimal environmental conditions that are guaranteed by it to the inhabitants. From this perspective, public authorities are not permitted to make concessions or grant extensions so that the environment continues to be affected, even when this is done with a view to bringing economic benefits to a specific geographic area.\n\nIn the specific case, there is no doubt whatsoever that the company Nombre182328 Internacional has become an important source of development in the canton of Cañas, generating more than four hundred direct jobs and constituting an important source of income through taxes for both the central administration and the municipal government of the canton. This has been expressly recognized by the Municipality of Cañas, which has expressed its support for the operation of the aforementioned company, especially considering its economic significance for the region. It is also evident that, possibly in consideration of this characteristic of the company, both the Municipality of Cañas, as well as the Ministry of Health and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, have acted passively regarding the environmental problems caused by the operation of the tilapia processing plant, since they have not acted decisively and energetically to suspend the contaminating causes generated by that production process. Regarding the Municipality of Cañas, out of consideration for criteria of economic and social benefit for the inhabitants of the canton, it has decidedly expressed itself in favor of authorizing the continuation of the activities of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., without taking into account that these operations, under the conditions in which they had been carried out, constituted an important source of environmental contamination, because wastewater with solid matter was discharged into oxidation ponds that could not efficiently assimilate such discharges, causing deficient operation of the domestic wastewater treatment system of that locality.\n\nAs indicated in section five of the current Construction Law (Ley de Construcciones), the Municipalities are responsible for ensuring that cities and towns meet the necessary conditions of safety and health in their public thoroughfares, buildings, and constructions: this task becomes an obligation of unavoidable compliance when it relates to the aforementioned section 50 of the Political Constitution. Consequently, municipal corporations cannot neglect the well-being of the inhabitants of their canton in those aspects that, like the environment, affect people's quality of life. Nor is the criterion of counterposing purely economic matters, such as the per capita income of the inhabitants, against their right to enjoy a healthy environment, by giving greater value to the former, acceptable: it makes no sense to direct state activity towards obtaining high levels of employment while sacrificing environmental purity, because without the latter, the former is worthless. Hence, the Chamber considers that the Municipality of Cañas has acted permissively, tolerating, and even promoting with its public statements, the operation of an industrial company whose waste contaminates the environment, especially water resources, for the sake of maintaining a supposed social well-being that is limited to the economic aspect and neglects even more fundamental issues. Regarding the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, it has been duly proven that, without having technical studies that allowed it, in October 1991 it authorized the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. to use the sanitary sewer network, designed to receive domestic waste, and to deposit there the wastewater generated by the production process it carried out. It is clear to the Chamber that, even if such industrial wastewater discharges respected the maximum permitted contaminant levels, the reception of these into the lagoon system exceeded the planned operational capabilities, which ultimately contributed to the deficient operation of the system. Likewise, the Executive President of AyA, by resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 11, 1998, ordered the cessation of the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A.: however, in consideration of the meeting held between representatives of Nombre5630, the aforementioned company, the Ministry of Health, and the Municipality of Cañas, the Executive President of the first entity ordered, by resolution at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 11, 1998, to temporarily suspend the order not to receive more wastewater, indicating that it would not be executed until September 3, 1998, pending the company's proposal as agreed at that meeting. The lack of decisive action to end the reception of contaminating waste that the Cañas lagoon system is not capable of processing is thus evidenced: the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados therefore violates the constitutionally imposed obligation to preserve and defend the environment.\n\nRegarding the Ministry of Health, this institution, although it carried out controls and even issued sanitary closure orders for the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., did not carry out decisive action to prevent the continuation of the contaminating discharges that this company made into the Cañas lagoon system. As the Acting Minister of Health correctly points out in her report, in August 1998, upon verifying physical-sanitary deficiencies, a sanitary order was issued aimed at definitively suspending the processing of tilapia at the site where it was being carried out, and relocation to another site that met the requirements of the case was ordered; but the reproach is based on the fact that this order was never executed, given that this ministry, in consideration of a meeting held with representatives of the aforementioned company, the Ministry of Environment, and the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, left it without effect and granted a deadline expiring on September 3, 1998, for the company to present a proposal to solve the environmental problem, a proposal which, if admissible, would entail an extension of the deadline by another sixteen months for the company to finish the construction of a new processing plant: consequently, through official communication DM-646-98 of October 1, 1998, the Ministry of Health decided to cancel the closure order decreed against the company. As previously indicated, this Chamber considers that addressing problems affecting the environment cannot be postponed, so it is not possible for public entities to authorize the continuation of contaminating action for a determined period, resorting to criteria such as those set forth above that only take into account the economic importance of the source of contamination and disregard the contaminating effect itself. Consequently, it must be concluded that the Ministry of Health has acted in this matter, not in the active manner imposed by section 50 of the Political Constitution, but in a tolerant manner regarding the source of contamination represented by the operation of the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A..\n\nFinally, regarding this company, it is evident, even by admission in the report rendered, that since 1992 it has been discharging its wastewater with organic matter into the domestic wastewater treatment system operated by the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados in the canton of Cañas. That lagoon system is not designed to handle wastewater from industrial processes, so the system's efficiency levels declined significantly from the start of operations of the tilapia processing plant operated by said company. Such discharges have produced the effect that the contaminated water flowing from the system into the Cañas River is not properly treated, transferring contaminating elements to that water resource. The argument that the system itself does not work and that there are other sources of contamination in the environment is not admissible, because that does not eliminate the contaminating nature of the waste discharged by the company into the Cañas lagoon system or the circumstance that this system is not built to treat industrial process waste but only domestic waste. Consequently, the operation of the aforementioned company constitutes an additional burden of contamination that affects the right of the inhabitants of the zone to enjoy a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The serious efforts of the company to reduce the contaminating effect of its current waste and to build a new processing plant that fully complies with the requirements of the case must be recognized, but this cannot ignore the harmful environmental effect of the activities it has carried out up to now in the canton of Cañas. It seems clear that the sole cause of the malfunctioning of the Cañas lagoon system is not the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A., since there are operational problems inherent to the facilities that, to be solved, require tasks such as reconditioning the inlets and outlets of the lagoons to improve hydraulic conditions, as expressly noted in the report by Dr. Edgar González Contreras of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. But this does not exempt the aforementioned company from any responsibility for discharging its wastewater into that domestic water treatment system, nor does it exempt the respondent entities that allowed it from responsibility. Ultimately, the waste discharges that the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. dumped into the Cañas lagoon system constitute an additional burden of contamination, technically inadequate, which must be added to the system's own operational conditions, which ultimately contributed to the contamination of the zone's water resources. Based on the foregoing, the appeal must be granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. in the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipality of Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the acts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the execution of the judgment of the contentious-administrative proceeding.\n\nTHEREFORE.\n\nThe appeal is granted. The Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados is ordered to immediately cease the reception of wastewater from the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. in the lagoon system it operates in the canton of Cañas. The State, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Municipality of Cañas, and the company Nombre182328 Internacional S.A. are ordered to pay the costs, damages, and losses caused by the acts that serve as the basis for this declaration, which shall be liquidated in the execution of the judgment of the contentious-administrative proceeding.\n\nLuis Fernando Solano C.\nActing President\nLuis Paulino Mora M. Eduardo Sancho G.\nCarlos Arguedas R. Adrián Vargas B.\nJosé Luis Molina Q. Susana Castro A." }