An early (and small) victory in the fight to save Patagonia

The Endesa project will inevitably commission another impact study, so please consider supporting the efforts to oppose this environmental disaster in the making. Here is a link to the Biogems page (NRDC) and a little summary of the latest news from their website. Thanks for your time. Now, we return to our regularly scheduled gadget programming...

http://www.savebiogems.org/patagonia/

"Far to the south, Chilean environmental officials have rejected a deeply flawed study of the impacts of a proposed hydroelectric dam in one of Patagonia's most pristine areas. The officials announced their decision less than a week after receiving more than 10,000 protest messages from BioGems Defenders. In March, NRDC BioGems advocates joined Ecosistemas -- one of our main partner groups there -- and the internationally renowned Chilean rock musician Beto Cuevas on an expedition to the region. They met with environmental leaders and local community activists and visited Chile's biggest river, the Baker, which has been targeted for two dams by the country's largest utility. "

http://www.savebiogems.org/newsletter/

From the Santiago Times:
http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=13361&topic_id=15

NRDC MEETS DAM OPPONENTS IN SOUTHERN CHILE

(March 30, 2007) Representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an influential U.S.-based environmental group that is opposing plans to build large hydroelectric dams on several Region XI rivers, spent this week on a fact-finding mission in southern Chile.

On Tuesday the NRDC team – headed by International Programs Director Jacob Scherr – met in Coyhaique with a wide range of local dam opponents, among them leaders of the Citizen Coalition for Aysén Life Reserve (CCARV), representatives from the National Organization of Young Tehuelches and Aysén Bishop Luis Infanti.

During the meeting, Scherr, a senior environmental attorney, reiterated his organization’s support for the mounting anti-dam campaign, pointing out that Region XI – an area also known as Aysén – is recognized on a global level as one of the planet’s great natural resources. Scherr also insisted that before making decisions about whether to approve the proposed dam projects, Chilean authorities should take into account both local input and alternative energy sources.

Joining the NRDC delegation on the week-long foray was veteran ecologist Juan Pablo Orrego, head of the Santiago-based environmental organization Ecosistemas, and Beto Cuevas, front man for the Grammy-winning pop-rock group La Ley. Earlier this month the two collaborated in an NRDC-sponsored information tour in California, where Cuevas currently makes his home (ST, March 2, March 20).

It’s important, Cuevas explained, for people in Chile to realize that the plans to construct dams in Aysén are still very much pending. “The companies, with their strong lobby, give off the impression that it’s already decided. Almost everyone, therefore, considers it a done deal,” he said. “My goal is to take advantage of my celebrity as a musician to inform the people otherwise.”

The pristine Aysén region of northern Patagonia, in many ways Chile’s “last frontier,” boasts some of the only remaining virgin wilderness left on the planet. Home to numerous unique plant and animal species – huemules (South Andean deer), Araucaria (Monkey Puzzle trees) and Alerce (a South American cousin of the Redwood), to name a few – Aysén also has some of Chile’s biggest rivers.

Which is why the country’s largest utility company, Endesa, has by its own admission been eyeing the region for the past 40 years. Those powerful, glacier-fed waterways, the company calculates, represent a windfall of potential electricity.

Now, with the country’s supply of natural gas (used for electricity production) threatened by ongoing availability problems in neighboring Argentina, and with domestic electricity consumption growing at an alarming 6.8 percent-year, the time is finally right, according to Endesa, to begin tapping Aysén’s vast water resources.

In collaboration with Colbún, another of Chile’s major energy companies, Endesa is working on its so-called Aysén Project. By far the biggest hydroelectric venture in the country’s history, the Aysén Project is a US$ 4 billion plan to build two dams on each of the region’s two largest rivers: the Baker and the Pascua. Together the dams are expected to produce an estimated 2,400 MW, equivalent to about 30 percent of the energy currently available in central Chile.

A Swiss mining company called Xstrata has also presented plans for an Aysén dam. Earlier this year Xstrata – formerly Falconbridge – submitted an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for a US$600 million, 600 MW hydroelectric dam it plans to construct on the Cuervo River (ST, Jan. 5). Just last week, however, the regional office of Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) announced that as it stands, the company’s EIS is insufficient. In order to proceed with the plan, the Xstrata must now go back to the drawing board, conduct more research, and resubmit its EIS – a process that according to the CCARV, could take as long as a year (ST, March 22).

“This is a zone with huge hydroelectric potential that has been studied for more than 40 years, going back to the time when Endesa Chile was state-owned,” HidroAysén, a joint entity formed by Endesa-Colbún, explained in written statement.

“Its development is closely linked to Chile’s medium and long-term energy needs. We’re using a renewable and competitive resource that’s clean and available domestically. (Also) the Baker and Pascua Rivers basin is much more stable than two located in the central part of the county, which allows for energy production that is not as subject to the arbitrary nature of seasons and the climate.”

Opponents, nevertheless, argue that the dams would be environmentally devastating. Not only would they involve widespread flooding, but they also call for building a 2,000-kilometer transmission line – the world’s longest – that would literally cut through acres upon acres of both protected and unprotected wilderness area (ST March 14).

“There are a ton of alternatives,” CCARV activist Peter Hartmann recently told the Santiago Times. “One option is smaller scale hydroelectric alternatives, in which there are a lot of megawatts available. (Those potential megawatts) also happen to be located much closer to where they’re needed. There are a lot of megawatts available in wind energy, which could also be generated closer to where the energy’s needed.

“Why don’t the mines that are earning billions of dollars with the high price of copper invest some of that money and generate their own solar energy, up there in the north, instead of waiting for Endesa to come here and then transport the electricity 2,000 kilometers? That’s just crazy. It’s the most unsustainable thing imaginable” (ST, Feb. 28).

By Benjamin Witte (benwitte@santiagotimes.cl)