Clearcut area in Central Chile.
Chile is a land of extremes, and Noranda's mega-project Alumysa
will be no exception. It would be extremely big, and it would
inflict extreme environmental destruction in an extremely fragile,
rare and beautiful habitat. The proposed site is the Central
Patagonia's Aysén region in the Southern Andes, a land of
breathtaking snow-capped mountains, clear lakes and globally
important rainforests and endangered species.
Fully 90 percent of its forest plants and animals are found
nowhere else on the globe, and many are endangered. The endemic
huemul deer which appears on Chile's national shield is little but
a legend in the rest of the nation, but it still roams the
Aysén.
In Aysén people can drink the water straight from rivers, and
the air is pristine. No wonder the 100,000 fisherman, farmers and
small ranchers who settled and live in this region dubbed it a
"Reserve of Life" and have vowed to pursue "just, sustainable and
equitable" development.
Looking for new kicks
After defiling large chunks of North America, Canada's powerful
Noranda mining corporation has cast its eye on Aysén and seen the
irresistible allure of voltage.
Aluminium has been called "congealed electricity" because so
much energy is needed to smelt it. In Aysén, Noranda will create
758MW of cheap hydroelectricity. To get it, the company plans to
build three dams in watersheds close to Puerto Aysén. This will
submerge 9,598 hectares of pristine forests, natural lakes and
wetlands.
What Noranda is not saying is that cheap labour and lax Chilean
environmental regulation enforcement also provide powerful
inducements.
Compulsive polluting disorder
As Noranda casts a powerful spell over government officials by
fluttering $US2.75 billion in their faces and chanting "low impacts
and up-to-date technology", Chileans outside Noranda's thrall would
be well advised to look at the company's track record.
Toronto-based Noranda was the second worst offender in 1998 for
toxic emissions in Canada, where it has had at least 87 intentional
violations and fines that exceed US$1.2 million. In the US fines
have cost the company $1.9 million.
Despite Noranda's soothing words, the company is notorious for
NOT using the latest technology needed to minimise environmental
impacts. Once the Alumysa project heaves into action, Chilean
officials will be hard-pressed to enforce any promises.
Details, details
"Frivolous" is how Noranda's vice-president of public affairs
and communications, Denis Couture, described the recent rash of
lawsuits around the Alumysa process. But Chilean environmental
group Fima says there are "glaring and serious irregularities" in
documentation, such as an error in which lake feeds a river (the
Cuervo) that would supply 64 percent of Alumysa's hydropower. The
group aims to overturn water rights granted to Alumysa. And the
Aysén "Reserve of Life" Alliance has also filed a lawsuit charging
that the destruction of natural resources and beauty means
irreparable economic losses for the community.
Can they resist?
Will Chile's fantastic Patagonia become little more than the
name of an outdoor clothing label? This is a defining moment for
Chile. Past governments unfailingly swooned before foreign
investment. And at $US 2.75 billion, Alumysa would the biggest
foreign investment project in Chilean history. But of the $US 470
million in added value the project is supposed to generate, only
$30 million will stay in the Aysén region.
Eight thousand workers will come to the region to construct the
project. The huge influx of single men would increase prostitution
and sexual disease, AIDS, alcoholism, crime and drug addiction. One
thousand men would be employed during operations, but only 10
percent of them would be local people.
And for every tonne of aluminum Alumysa produces, it will
generate one and a half tonnes of waste packed with fluorides,
alumina, cyanide, sodium, arsenic, heavy metals, oils, solvents and
coolants. No adequate storage or treatment plan exists, and the
region's ample rainfall makes leakage into ground water and streams
inevitable. This will threaten humans as well as rare marine
life.
Damming and flooding the landscape will cause the endangered
huemul dear and colo colo cat to suffer, as well 18 other
endangered, rare or vulnerable species.
Alumysa must be stopped!
Without greater national and international attention, Alumysa
will go ahead and one of the world's greatest reserves of temperate
rainforest will be destroyed. Write to the President of Chile and ask him to put
a stop to the Alumysa project and protect the Aysén regio