Chile:
Contamination from a pulp mill causes death in the wetlands
The Nature Sanctuary Carlos
Anwandter at Rio Cruces is the Site that Chile incorporated as Wetland
of International Importance when it adhered to the Ramsar Convention
on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl
Habitat, in 1981. It is home to a wide diversity of species of flora
and fauna, particularly black-necked swans (Cygnus melancoryphus),
an endangered migratory bird. The Sanctuary and its swans are part
of the identity and image of the inhabitants of the nearby city
of Valdivia, closely linked to the riparian landscape.
At the end of October, public
alarm was alerted with the appearance of dozens of dead or undernourished
and blind black-necked swans, with evident neurological alterations
that made it impossible for them to fly. The reason for this was
identified as being the fact that they feed on a type of algae (Egeria
densa) which is apparently being affected by contaminants. This
disaster is also affecting the taguas (a local bird), coypu (a vegetarian
rodent), and various types of fish that have also been found dead.
Although there has not been
a conclusive answer to the causes of this disaster, the sole relevant
event that has taken place on the Cruces River over the past year
and that could explain such a drastic change in the ecosystem is
the entry into operation of the Valdivia Pulp Mill, belonging to
the Celulosa Arauco Company (CELCO). This pulp mill started operating
in February 2004, 15 km upriver from the protected wetland.
Located in the commune of
San José de la Mariquina, Province of Valdivia, with an initial
investment of one billion dollars, this mill has an annual production
of 850,000 tons of Kraft pulp and was presented to the country as
a model enterprise. It was the first one to be submitted to an Environmental
Impact Assessment System (EIAS), set out in Law 19,300 on general
environmental bases and, according to its executives, one of the
few in the world to have a tertiary treatment system for the evacuation
of effluents. The environmental resolution approving it assured
that the emissions of total reduced sulphide (TRS) – the characteristic
“rotten egg” smell of pulp mills – would not be
detected by the human sense of smell. At the most it would be projected
at a range of 500 metres.
However, since 1996, various
ecological and citizen organizations had opposed the installation
of CELCO. They warned about the project’s impacts and in particular
the consequences of the evacuation of industrial effluents. The
political authorities did not listen to them, seduced by the possibility
of opening a great company.
Today, less than a year
after it was launched, negative impacts on the environment have
overshadowed any benefit that it might have given to regional economy.
What started in the first months of the year with complaints and
protests by the community of Valdivia, affected by the nauseous
smell blown in by the wind (see WRM Bulletin 83), continued in August
with an environmental emergency in the Eighth Region following the
turpentine sulphate spill that affected, among others, the inhabitants
of Lota, located at 30 km from the pulp mill, where schools had
to close down because the pupils were nauseous with headaches and
vomiting. . Following the launching of the pulp mill, in other nearby
villages, such as Lanco, Mafil and San Jose de la Mariquina, people
started consulting the doctor because of headaches, nausea and irritated
eyes.
The pervading emanating
smell widely surpasses 50 kilometres, and even reaches as far as
the city of Valdivia. CELCO has already been sanctioned by the Valdivia
Health Service, by the Municipality of San Jose de la Mariquina
and by CONAMA (the National Environmental Commission) of the Tenth
Region.
The environmental authorities
have detected serious irregularities in the construction and operation
of the Mill and in the liquid and gaseous waste effluents and emissions
showing that the volumes established by the Environmental Impact
Assessment approved by the Chilean authorities, have not been respected.
Among other things, a clandestine duct and direct discharge into
the Cruces River of stagnant water from the ponds of untreated liquid
industrial waste and of 50 litres per second of refrigeration waters
at a high temperature through the rainwater collector, were identified..
To this now is added the
death of the black-necked swans. Shocked by the ecological disaster
that is affecting the wetlands of the Cruces River and disappointed
by the slow reaction of the authorities to this event, on 14 November
the inhabitants of the region organized a march and an original
river caravan in which over 1,500 people took part and on 16 November
they held a Citizen Assembly with the participation of 500 people.
The demand was unanimous: to apply the preventive principle set
out in environmental legislation and while their possible responsibility
for the deaths in the Sanctuary is not discarded, to halt operations
at the paper mill so as to eliminate contaminating effluents that
are suspected of causing the loss of the ecological heritage of
the Cruces River,.
The mass death of swans
and the impacts on the ecosystem of the Nature Sanctuary were avoidable.
