EcoAlert: One of World's Great Wild Rivers Saved --Chile's Supreme Court Halts Patagonia Dam Construction

 

               

Conservationists protest against the project to build several hydroelectric power stations in the Chilean Patagonia, in Santiago, Chile in 2011. Chile's supreme court has halted construction on the Rio Cuervo hydroelectric project in the country's remote and pristine Patagonia region, after accepting an appeal from environmental groups.

The court's decision on Friday ran counter to a recommendation by a regional environmental review commission to give the green light to the project, developed by a joint venture of Australia's Origin Energy and Xstrata Copper.

The Rio Cuervo project is part of a larger plan to build three dams with a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts in the area around Aysen. Environmental groups filed a petition against the project, saying it will wreak havoc in the region's unspoiled wilderness.

Chile's high court accepted the appeal and ruled the environmental review board had ignored a recommendation from the national geology and mining service to reject a soil survey done by the joint venture, known as Energia Austral. The court ordered that a new soil survey be carried out before a new vote on approval of the project.

On Saturday, Energia Austral said it would comply with the court's wishes, noting that "in no way should the court's ruling be understood as a rejection of the project under evaluation."

The separate Hidroaysen project to build another five hydroelectric dams in the Aysen region of Patagonia is already in the final stages of the approval process --a $3.2 billion initiative, a joint venture of Colbun and Endesa, would generate 2,750 megawatts of electricity, but the dams would flood 14,600 acres (5,900 hectares) of pristine land.

Unfortunately, Chile's supreme court has given the green light for that project to go ahead.

 

          

The Daily Galaxy via 2012 AFP

Comments

[dr burke]

Da, since global warming with melt the glaciers and the water will dry up, this
might be a good idea. Think, Thorium reactors. Or geothermal, allow
the heat from the earth generate your electricity and heat. Da!

[Tosca Z]

Glad to hear some good news, and to know that there are still some sane people in high places.

[George]

I fail to see why this is good news. This is only the narrow minded enviromentalist point of view. It would be good news IF the dam wasn't good enough planned to maximaze the river's capacity to produce energy. Now how do you think they are going to produce energy? By some magical energy producing clean technology? I suppose you prefer a 800ΜW coal power plant filling your children's lungs with cancer?
To tell you the truth i am disspapointed that dailygalaxy, which i enjoy very much to read, addopts one opinion that's so narrow minded.

[N. Campbell]

Reservoirs can be much more damaging and polluting than a coal fired power plant and should not be considered "green energy", especially in the warm environment of South America where decomposition is accelerated.

Research by Marco Aurelio dos Santos, at Cidade University in Rio de Janeiro, suggests that that up to half of Brazil's hydroelectric reservoirs have a global-warming capability similar to that of a fossil-fuel power plant.

Reservoirs are the largest anthropogenic source of methane, which is 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/our-reservoirs-are-plumbing-the-depths-of-insanity-633896.html

[Lee]

Why is the United states starving for water?
Environmentalism!

[Miguel]

Conservationism = No carbon, no nuclear, no hydroelectric, NO ENERGY