A new environmental appeal is challenging official approval for the proposed Puerto Viejo Neighborhood Pier in Talamanca, arguing that the project could damage coral ecosystems and move forward on the basis of incomplete marine studies. The filing asks Costa Rica’s National Environmental Technical Secretariat, known as SETENA, to annul the project’s environmental viability and suspend any work tied to it.
The appeal was filed by environmental attorney Wálter Brenes Soto on March 18 and targets SETENA resolution No. 1879-2024, which granted environmental approval to the project. Brenes argues that the supporting environmental review lacks the scientific basis required for construction in what he describes as an environmentally fragile marine area.
At the center of the challenge is the claim that the environmental study focused almost entirely on land conditions, even though the project would be built in the sea. According to the appeal, the file omitted basic marine analysis, including seabed mapping, bathymetry, benthic ecosystem assessment and oceanographic conditions, leaving authorities without a reliable picture of the project’s likely impact below the waterline.
The appeal also questions the consulting firm’s conclusion that deeper biological studies were unnecessary because the site had already been altered by maritime activity. Brenes argues that such reasoning is not enough to justify a lighter review for a structure that would place steel piles into a coastal marine zone.
One of the most serious points raised in the filing is the presence of coral at the proposed construction site. According to the project file cited in the appeal, the area includes a coral reef layer about 2.5 meters thick where the structure would be installed. Brenes argues that the plan contemplates construction directly over that coral without a biological assessment that clearly measures the effect of the intervention.
The challenge also disputes the idea that reefs in the area are largely dead as a result of the 1991 Limón earthquake. Brenes says that conclusion relies on outdated literature. He points instead to more recent evidence cited in the appeal showing living reef systems and active coral cover in the Puerto Viejo area, including records of species such as Porites astreoides, Millepora complanata and Diploria strigosa, along with research associated with the University of Costa Rica’s Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology.
The filing further argues that the environmental review left out marine species that could be affected by the project, including sea turtles, dolphins, manatees and Acropora palmata, a coral species listed as critically endangered. That omission, according to the appeal, weakens the legal and scientific basis for the project’s approval.
The broader dispute over the pier has been building for months. The project, backed by JAPDEVA and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, is planned as a 60-meter structure intended to support artisanal fishing and tourism activity in Puerto Viejo. Critics, including local residents, environmental groups and university researchers, argue that the work could damage a reef system that remains alive and under pressure from sewage discharge, sediment and warming seas.
The project has also faced administrative setbacks beyond the environmental appeal. Costa Rica’s Comptroller General rejected part of JAPDEVA’s proposed 2026 funding for the pier, saying key agreements and institutional responsibilities had not been properly documented. That decision did not settle the environmental debate, but it added to growing scrutiny over how the project has been planned and justified.
For now, the appeal asks SETENA to void the environmental approval and open administrative investigations into the officials involved in granting it. The case adds another layer of tension to a project that supporters present as local infrastructure, but opponents see as a direct threat to one of Puerto Viejo’s most sensitive marine ecosystems.
