News Categories Environment WORK PROCEEDS ON UNAUTHORIZED PATAGONIA DAM PROJECT
| WORK PROCEEDS ON UNAUTHORIZED PATAGONIA DAM PROJECT |
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| Written by Patagonia Times Staff | |
| Thursday, 26 March 2009 | |
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Hartmann: “If You’re Not Building Tunnels, What Are You Doing?” A war of words has erupted in recent days over tunnels energy company HidroAysén is digging alongside Region XI’s Baker and Pascua Rivers, where the utility hopes to eventually build five large-scale hydroelectric facilities. During a visit to Region XI earlier this month, U.S. environmental activist Gary Hughes inspected the tunnels first hand, confirming that major construction work is indeed being carried out. Hughes is a campaign coordinator with a California-based NGO called International Rivers (IR), one of several U.S. environmental groups opposing the dam project. In an interview last week with CNN Chile, Hughes described the tunnels as “very worrisome” and suggested they could affect Chile’s image abroad. HidroAysén General Manager Hernán Salazar responded a few days later with his own CNN Chile interview, saying the huge holes Soletanche Bachy is digging are not “tunnels” but rather “geological explorations.” “A tunnel is a very different thing from an exploration,” he said. So far HidroAysén is simply “studying” the terrain, said Salazar. “We haven’t begun the actual construction phase. Our project will begin only after it has been approved by environmental authorities,” he added. The Region XI-based Citizen Coalition for Aysén Life Reserve (CCARV), which has been monitoring the tunnels for several months, is far from convinced. Peter Hartmann, a CCARV coordinator, accused Salazar this week of hiding the truth by indulging in a game of “semantics.” “What Salazar says is so whimsical. It would be like deciding to dynamite Santiago’s Cerro Santa Lucía for the sake of studies and explorations. On top of that, (HidroAysén) hasn’t carried out any kind of analysis of the eventual environmental impacts this work is causing,” said Hartmann. “If these aren’t tunnels, then clearly explain to the people what they are,” he added. The CCARV first brought public attention to the tunnels last October (PT, Oct. 7, 2008). A month later the Patagonia Defense Council (CDP), an umbrella group allied with the CCARV, filed a lawsuit against HidroAysén, saying the energy company’s “illegal” tunnels are causing environmental damage (PT, Nov. 21, 2008). “We are presenting the suit because the HidroAysén company, even though its Environmental Impact Study (EIS) has not been approved, is already carrying out work that causes environmental damage,” said CDP attorney Marcelo Castillo. “These ecosystems are highly sensitive, just as the government agencies participating in the evaluation process have said. The company ought to repair the damage it’s caused.” The issue has not escaped the attention of the project’s many Congressional opponents. Sen. Alejandro Navarro, a presidential candidate and member of the Senate’s environmental committee, visited the tunnels last month (PT, March 4). Like Gary Hughes, Navarro described their construction as “worrisome.” So far authorities have done little to officially resolve the confusion. HidroAysén has permission from Chile’s Electricity and Fuels Superintendent’s Office (SEC) to carryout preliminary studies. Such studies are not supposed to involve either the use of explosives or construction of such large-scale tunnels – which the CCARV estimates to be 200 meters deep. Nevertheless, the SEC has yet to complain about HidroAysén’s liberal interpretation of the law. The government’s National Geologic and Mining Service (SERNAGEOMIN) has been more overtly critical of HidorAysén’s early construction efforts, saying the work should not be done without first assessing its potential environmental impact. “Given the fact that these areas have hardly been touched by humans, the (HidroAysén construction efforts) represent a major impact,” SERNAGEOMIN said last October. “The construction of roads, use of explosives and clearing of trees…constitute a change to the environment.” For bureaucratic reasons, however, SERNAGEOMIN has no power when it comes to electricity projects to enforce its opinion. It cannot, in other words, require HidroAysén to first carry out environmental impacts studies. “This just shows how problematic the system is and how little concern regional bureaucrats really have about what’s going on,” said Hartmann. “Here you have a case where the institution with an expertise in geology makes a suggestion, and the government agency in charge doesn’t take it into account.” HidroAysén is a joint entity created in 2006 by Italian-owned electricity giant Endesa and Colbún, a Chilean utility. Together they plan to build two large-scale dams on the Baker – Chile’s largest river – and three on the Pascua. The dams are expected to add some 2,750 MW of electricity to Chile’s Central Grid, whose current capacity is roughly 9,100 MW. HidroAysén submitted its dam project for approval by environmental authorities last August, filing an 11,000-page EIS with Aysén’s Regional Environmental Commission (PT, Aug. 14, 2008). Three months later the company withdrew the EIS, which various government agencies claimed to be erroneous and “insufficient” (PT, Nov. 19, 2008). HidroAysén plans to resubmit the project this coming August. Backers say the project would go a long way toward satisfying Chile’s growing appetite for electricity, said to increase by some 6 percent annually. The energy source, furthermore, is clean and efficient, HidroAysén insists. And, because the water is located right here in Chile, it is not – unlike imported oil and natural gas – subject to uncertain price and supply variations. Critics say the dams will ruin the Baker and Pascua river basins. Of equal concern, they say, is a more than 2,000-kilometer transmission line that would be required to transport the electricity from Aysén to energy hungry central Chile. Not only would it be an irreversible blight on the landscape, but the transmission line would also open up the Chilean Patagonia wilderness to further industrial encroachment, warn groups like the CDP and CCARV. By Patagonia Times Staff ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) |
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