Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Patagonia dam project looming
Wednesday's decision by CONAMA was just the latest twist in an ongoing battle surrounding not just the Cuervo River plan, but also the much larger Aysén Project.
By far the biggest hydroelectric venture in the country's history, the US$ 4 billion Aysén Project is a joint endeavor being developed by two of Chile's principal utility companies: Endesa and Colbún. The two companies, now working under the name HidroAyén, plan to build two dams on each of the region's two largest rivers: the Baker and the Pascua. Together these dams are expected to produce an estimated 2,400 MW, equivalent to about 30 percent of the energy currently available in central Chile.
Opponents of the Xstrata and HidroAysén projects - among them local activists and environmentalists, the influential U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and even famous rock star Beto Cuevas (ST, March 20) - insist the dams would be environmentally devastating for the pristine region.
The Aysén Project, for example, not only calls for flooding approximately 93 square kilometers of wilderness, but will also require the construction of 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 13).
"Beyond what's being said about the Cuervo River project," the CCARV stated, "what's clear is that having dams, reservoirs and a high-tension power line crossing all of Patagonia, is and will always be bad business for Aysén and the country as a whole."
http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page31?oid=18626&sn=Detail
This story was originally published with the permission of The Santiago Times - www.santiagotimes.cl
Wednesday's decision by CONAMA was just the latest twist in an ongoing battle surrounding not just the Cuervo River plan, but also the much larger Aysén Project.
By far the biggest hydroelectric venture in the country's history, the US$ 4 billion Aysén Project is a joint endeavor being developed by two of Chile's principal utility companies: Endesa and Colbún. The two companies, now working under the name HidroAyén, plan to build two dams on each of the region's two largest rivers: the Baker and the Pascua. Together these dams are expected to produce an estimated 2,400 MW, equivalent to about 30 percent of the energy currently available in central Chile.
Opponents of the Xstrata and HidroAysén projects - among them local activists and environmentalists, the influential U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and even famous rock star Beto Cuevas (ST, March 20) - insist the dams would be environmentally devastating for the pristine region.
The Aysén Project, for example, not only calls for flooding approximately 93 square kilometers of wilderness, but will also require the construction of 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 13).
"Beyond what's being said about the Cuervo River project," the CCARV stated, "what's clear is that having dams, reservoirs and a high-tension power line crossing all of Patagonia, is and will always be bad business for Aysén and the country as a whole."
http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page31?oid=18626&sn=Detail
This story was originally published with the permission of The Santiago Times - www.santiagotimes.cl
Labels: dam, endesa, environment, hydro, patagonia
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