HidroAysén Postpones Environmental Review Process Until October 2009

Aerial View of Patagonia's Baker River
Aerial View of Patagonia's Baker River
Yesterday, with a press release published on Burson-Marsteller letterhead, the HidroAysén company announced their intent to postpone until October of this year the resubmission of their project to environmental review.

Those who have followed the work to protect Patagonia's rivers from massive hydroelectric development know that it was in August of last year that HidroAysén finally submitted their much-awaited Environmental Impact Study. Then it was in early November 2008 that they were able to make an "end run" around Chilean environmental regulations by succeeding in being granted nine-months to respond to the 3,000 observations made by government agencies about the inadequacy of their project study. The end ot that nine-month period was set to expire next week, at the end of August 2009.

Last November's "end run" around the review process was carried out under executive government order, and is the main theme in a legal claim that was filed, interestingly enough, by the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia yesterday morning in Coyhaique, Aysén Region.  The claim demands that the HidroAysén EIA be subject to vote by the regional environmental authority based upon the observations of the government agencies, including the one-third of the reviewing agencies that recommended that the project EIA be rejected. It was this vote that was avoided by illegally providing HidroAysén both a suspension and an extension to the review of their project last November.

CDP lawyer Marcos Castillo files claim demanding rejection of HidroAysén EIA
CDP lawyer Marcos Castillo files claim demanding rejection of HidroAysén EIA
In summary, the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia brought suit against the HidroAysén project demanding that the review process from last November be completed and the project rejected, and on the same day the company responded by soliciting a postponement of their submission of materials responding to criticisms of their EIA--a request that was rapidly granted by the Chilean government.

HidroAysén publically says that they wanted to give the environmental authorities in Aysén the ability to dedicate resources to the review of another hydroelectric megaproject proposed for the Cuervo River. This huge 650 MW dam project of Energía Austral, a subsidiary of the Swiss-Australian mining giant Xstrata, has just been accepted for environmental review. As an aside, The Xstrata project is a rebirthing of the infamous Alumysa aluminum smelter project, and was previously rejected due to, of course, the inadequacy of their EIA. How nice of HidroAysén to offer to wait to submit their materials so that officials can dedicate themselves to the Xstrata project! Officially, though, in their petition to the government, HisroAysén said they "need more time to respond to the observations," a gross contradiction that exposes their less than gentlemanly motives for delaying the review of their project yet once again.

The permanent protection of Patagonia's rivers is still a distant objective, especially with the anarchic "open season" being waged by a mulititude of transnational corporations on Chile's wild waterways. Nevertheless, these latest developments demonstrate what our Patagonia Campaign has contended since the beginning--the HidroAysén project is environmentally and energetically unjustifiable, and the company is more engaged in a public relations campaign than in a technically proficient environmental review process.

We will follow up soon with more news about campaign advancements in Chile, and internationally.  As well, stay tuned for a new action alert demanding rejection of the HidroAysén EIA and recognition of the harm that the approval of this project would do to the international reputation of Chile. Also, a last word of thanks--it has been your support and interest in this issue up to this point that has kept Patagonia's wild rivers flowing free, and this latest development is evidence that your support is making a difference!