Construction Union slams HydroAysen Projects in Chile

(Dec. 4, 2007) The Coyhaique Construction Workers Union (STCC) this week urged Chile not to be “fooled” by international companies such as Endesa, Colbún and Xstrata which say their plans to dam the Patagonia’s rivers will bring development and jobs to the region.

“We have to defend the Aysén Region,” said STCC President Ricardo Guarategua. “These foreign companies are coming to steal our waters. And the money will all just go back to Spain. It’s time that we ayseninos (Aysén residents) stand up.” The STCC is one of Region XI’s most important labor unions.

Of particular concern to the union is the so-called HidroAysén Project, a planned joint venture by energy companies Endesa and Colbún that calls for the construction of five massive hydroelectric dams. Together the dams, slated for the Baker and Pascua Rivers, would generate 2,750 MW of electricity – roughly equivalent to 20 percent of Chile’s current overall current generating capacity.

Endesa, one of the world’s largest energy companies, is co-owned by Italian utility Enel (67 percent) and Spanish construction firm Acciona (25 percent). Colbún, owned by the Matte Group, is Chilean and also counts with investment from Chile’s Angelini group. A third company, Swiss mining firm Xstrata, also has plans to build hydroelectric dams in the region.

“Our union has gathered information and studied the subject,” said José Cayún, the STCC’s vice president. “We also remember what happened when Alumysa (an aluminum smelting company) wanted to set up shop. They said the same thing: development for the region, more work for the people, that the quality of life for the region’s worker would improve. But it was all a big lie. Now they come along with these dams and promise us the same thing. But it’s also a lie.”

The STCC joins an ever growing list of organizations opposing the Patagonia dam projects. Other opponents include the Region XI-based Citizen Coalition for Aysén Life Reserve, the Santiago-based environmental group Ecosistemas and several U.S. NGOs, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and the International Rivers Network.

The union leader’s comments come in the wake of the recent Cavalcade for a Patagonia without Dams, a nine-day Region XI horseback ride trek organized to bring attention to the issue. The cavalcade’s approximately 100 riders completed their journey in Coyhaique, the Aysén capital, early last week (ST, Nov. 28).

Opponents of HidroAysén project say it would be environmentally and socially devastating for the pristine region. Not only does the plan involve extensive flooding, but it also calls for building a 2,000-kilometer transmission line – the world’s longest – that would cut through thousands of acres of protected and unprotected wilderness area.

Backers of the project say it is a necessary step toward meeting Chile’s increasing appetite for electricity, which grows by more than 6 percent annually. Endesa and Colbún also argue that their US$2.5 billion project would bring jobs to the area – particularly construction jobs.

Those jobs, however, represent only a short-term benefit, said José Cayún, who insisted there’s nothing contradictory about a construction worker’s union opposing a massive construction project.

“Our people might get excited when they talk about bringing 4,000 jobs* to the region, but we don’t think it’ll really work out like that. They’ll need workers, for clearing and building roads, but it’ll just be for a few years and only for qualified people. Once the roads are built, and the project completed, they’ll send those workers home… And it may not be us, but our children and grandchildren will suffer the polluting affects during all the years that the dams last,” he said.

(Four thousand jobs to build the project but SIGNIFICANTLY less to operate it. IBENER S.A.'s two hydroelectric stations on the Duqueco River require 25 employees to operate: Professionals & Executives = 8, Technicians = 10, Administrative = 5, Aides = 2. See: IBENER S.A. 2002 Annual Report.)

Here is the full article.

Proposed Dams Near Seismic Fault

Residents and activists already concerned about the devastating impact proposed dam projects could have on southern Chile’s pristine wilderness, now have a new argument for why it is simply a bad idea to dam Patagonia’s rivers: earthquakes.

In recent weeks, the towns of Pueto Aysén and Puerto Chacabuco in southern Chile’s Region XI have been jolted by an unusual spate of seismic activity that continues to rock the area. In the last week of January alone, seismologists recorded an astounding 1,700 tremors—only a small but still alarming number of which were noticeable. A few of the small quakes registered as high as 6 on the Mercalli scale. Locals initially feared a repeat of the devastating 1991 eruption of the nearby Hudson Volcano, which was preceded by a similar cluster of tremors and quakes.

Authorities, however, have since come up with another theory to explain the tremors. A team of scientists dispatched to the area in late January concluded that the quakes are likely being caused by underground magma flow in the nearby Aysén fjord. According to the experts, the magma, which is pressuring a subterranean tectonic plate, could eventually push its way to the surface and form a relatively small volcanic cone on the seafloor of the fjord.

The scientific team—made up of a Universidad de Chile seismologist, a geologist from the National Mining and Geologic Service and a volcanologist from the National Emergency Office—identified the epicenter of the tremors as being approximately 12 miles northwest of Puerto Chacabuco.

Xstrata’s project map superimposed on map of region with the epicenter of the quake at left. (Courtesy: http://www.eldivisadero.cl)
That, say some area residents, is dangerously close to the site of a 600-megawatt hydroelectric dam the Swiss mining company Xstrata—working through its local affiliate Energía Austral—plans to build on the Cuervo River. Xstrata, which has already submitted the requisite Environmental Impact Study, is looking to begin construction on the $600 million project sometime next year.

During a community forum organized earlier this month by journalist Patricio Segura and architect Peter Hartmann, participants expressed major concern about the Xstrata project’s proximity to the estimated epicenter of the quakes.

“It seems dangerous to me,” said Paola Bustamante, a teacher from Puerto Aysén. “It’s terrifying to me to think about earthquakes plus dams. With the appearance of this new variable, I think we need to take an even deeper look (at this proposal) and tell people the truth, not hide anything.”

“The people are really worried about the issue of quakes,” said Hartmann, who also heads the regional office of an environmental group called the Committee for the Defense of Flora and Fauna (CODEFF). “The problem is that the epicenter of the recent quakes and the volcano that might form there are exactly in front of the place where they want to build the dam. This represents a risk even for the company.”

Here is the full article.

Xstrata, Company behind Patagonia Dam Project Criticized in Australia

Xstrata, criticized heavily by a growing number of Chileans opposing the Swiss mining company’s plan to build a large hydroelectric dam in northern Patagonia (Region XI), is no stranger to controversy – especially when it comes to rivers.

In recent months the mining company has struggled to gain Chilean government approval for its plan to dam the Cuervo River. Hoping to begin construction on the proposed 600 MW dam sometime next year, Xstrata submitted a requisite Environmental Impact Study (EIS) this past January (ST, Jan. 5). The EIS did not impress Chile’s National Environmental Committee (CONAMA), which refused to even consider the “insufficient” report (ST, March 22-23). CONAMA did, however, invite the company to submit a second EIS, something Xstrata promises to do.

Local activists and environmentalists, meanwhile, want nothing less than to send the Swiss mining company packing. Not only would Xstrata’s proposed dam be environmentally hazardous to the pristine wilderness area, but – given a barrage of seismic activity that’s affected the zone in recent months – it would also be just plain dangerous, say opponents.

“To do that, to build (the dam) right now would be a time bomb,” Hipolito Medina of the environmental group Ecosistemas recently told the Patagonia Times. “You don’t need to be an engineer, a geologist, a sorcerer or anything to realize that (the Xstrata plan) is a real danger.”

Criticisms against the company, however, are by no means limited to southern Chile. In fact, on the opposite side of the planet – in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) – Xstrata currently finds itself at the center of a separate controversy.

Here is the full article.

Xstrata & Transelec Negotiate Cuervo River Dam Project

Xstrata, a Swiss mining company planning to build a hydroelectric dam in Chile’s far southern Region XI, has entered into negotiations with Canadian-owned electricity transport company Transelec, the Chilean business daily Estrategia reported this week.

The Swiss company, a substantial player in Chile’s mining industry, hopes to build a 600-MW dam on Region XI’s Cuervo River. The project has not yet been approved by Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA), which rejected an Environmental Impact Study Xstrata submitted earlier this year (ST, March 22).

Xstrata is by no means the only multinational interested in the energy potential of Patagonia’s powerful, glacier-fed rivers. Spanish electricity giant Endesa, working in collaboration with Chilean energy company Colbún, also has big plans for the area. With their so-called Aysén Project, the Endesa and Colbún plan to build five dams that would together generate some 2,750 MW.

The question for all three companies is how to transport that energy from Region XI (Aysén) to energy hungry central and northern Chile. For Endesa and Colbún, the answer is a US$1.5 billion, 2,000-km. transmission line, to be built by Transelec. Up to now, however, it’s been reported that the carrying capacity of such a power line would be limited to roughly the amount of electricity Endesa and Colbún plan to generate. The transmission line, in other words, would not be able to accommodate Xstrata or any other company with plans to dam Patagonia’s rivers.

An article published Tuesday in Estrategia, however, suggests otherwise. Reporting that Xstrata and Transelec have begun preliminary negotiations, the article went on to suggest that by employing a so-called quadripolar system, the Canadian company could theoretically accommodate Xstrata’s 600-MW contribution. If that is indeed the case, Xstrata could avoid having to build a second, parallel transmission line.

Here is the full article.