A group of Chilean fishermen has taken court action to stop a USD 1 billion (EUR 888 million) water desalination project on Chile’s central coast after preventing access to the construction site for the past two months over fears that the plant’s operations will pollute the waters in which they work.
The Aconcagua Desalination Plant under construction near the coastal town of Quintero aims to supply fresh water to mining companies such as Anglo American - an investor in the failed Pebble Mine project in Alaska - and some 40,000 inhabitants in the interior of the central region. It would include a 105-kilometer aqueduct to pipe the water inland, aiming to provide respite to an area – and to a mining industry as a whole – that has suffered from extreme drought over the past 14 years.
Chile is a major copper mining country – the red metal represents over half of the nation’s exports – but it faces a conundrum: Chilean mining operations require significant amounts of water but often operate in arid desert locations in the central and northern parts of the country.
Complicating the matter, the desalination project is progressing in a “sacrifice zone” – an area where residents are vulnerable to high pollution levels and hazardous materials, adversely impacting their health. This is mainly due to decades of unchecked industrial development in the form of coal-fired electric plants, smelters, petrochemical development, and coal handling at the local Ventanas port, among other locations.
Within this context, some fishers’ unions doubt the plant’s safety.
“We will not let the desalination plant lay its pipelines here. For years, we have had coal spills, spills of polluting liquids, [and] a saturation of ships that rip our nets and continue to deteriorate the bay,” Hugo Poblete, head of the Bahía Narau Fishermen’s Federation, told local paper El Mercurio. “We are beginning to [replenish] the bay with oysters, clams, [and] abalone. Quintero has given a lot to the country, and in return, we have only been plundered.”
Poblete said he worries the desalination project will increase the salinity of the sea and harm the ecosystem in an area already suffering from various types of pollution – a concern also shared by some local authorities.
A company called Aguas Pacífico, which Brazilian firm Fondo Patria Investment owns, is overseeing the project. Fondo Patria has a project portfolio of more than USD 15.8 billion (EUR 14 billion), El Mercurio reported.
Although Aguas Pacífico has been in a position to start construction since 2018 – when it obtained the required environmental qualification resolution, maritime concession, and approval of an environmental impact study – the fishermen filed for protection against the company in a federal court of appeals of Valparaíso, saying the project lacked the necessary permits.
The court rejected the claim, but an appeal to Chile's Third Chamber of the Supreme Court found the case admissible for processing.
According to information on Aguas Pacífico’s website, the desalination plant would have capacity to produce up to 1,000 liters per second (l/s) of water.
Besides the mining company Anglo American, its clients include other firms in the industrial sector and seven rural potable water providers, known as SSRs in Spanish. The company offers subsidized prices for the latter, and is actively conversing with other SSRs in the project’s area of influence to sign similar agreements.
Aguas Pacífico insists it has taken the steps needed to obtain both the legal and the social license to operate.
“It should be noted that the project voluntarily applied an advance citizen participation for environmental processing, as established in the Escazú Agreement, which was done before this treaty was ratified by Chile,” the company said. “The process had broad participation and incorporated citizen observations in the project design presented to the authorities.”
In the spirit of this collaboration, the company signed agreements with seven artisanal fisher unions in Quintero Bay, seeking to promote territorial development and capacity building for union members, according to Aguas Pacífico, which stressed its availability to sign similar agreements with other unions.
Further, the company said it has implemented the best available technology for seawater harvesting into the plant’s design. In the case of discharge, it has incorporated a diffusion system “whose design will allow the salinity of the water to return to its original condition after two seconds and within a radius of 6 meters, according to the models carried out,” which it said refutes claims made by the slighted fishermen.
Insisting that the Aconcagua Desalination Plant does not generate any type of atmospheric pollution thanks to its use of renewable energy, Aguas Pacífico said it has also signed an agreement with the Universidad de Valparaíso, which will collaborate in the supervision of the plant’s performance.
According to internal Aguas Pacífico documents obtained by SeafoodSource, the company feels that the action “by a minority group of fishermen constitutes a threat to the project as a source of employment for more than 2,000 people in the area and postpones the delivery of a vital resource for the entire Aconcagua Valley, specifically for 40,000 SSR clients faced with significant restrictions due to water scarcity … Each day of stoppage constitutes a delay … [to] this important project, decreasing the capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change and diminishing water security for a multiplicity of users of the Aconcagua Basin.”
The Aconcagua project is the first conversion project in the sector and is key for adaptation to climate change, the company claimed.
"It is critical to put an end to this mobilization that harms different actors and social organizations in the region, as well as the economy, investment, work, and the environment," it said.
There are currently 38 desalination plants in operation throughout Chile that produce 8,558 l/s and another 38 under consideration or active construction that would add 30,208 l/s, according to information from Aguas Pacífico. Considering the country’s ongoing drought and increasing need for water, more desalination systems will likely be built in Chile in coming years.
Of the current capacity, 71.9 percent of Chilean desalinated water goes toward mining, 22.3 percent goes toward human consumption, and 6 percent is for industrial use. Currently, there are four desalination plants solely intended for potable water, with a combined capacity of 2,008 l/s.
To try to unblock the current stalemate with dissenting fishermen and resume work, Aguas Pacífico has made an offer to pay CLP 2.2 million (USD 2,690, EUR 2,390) to each fisherman for training and an annual payment of CLP 7.5 million (USD 9,170, EUR 8,150) to each union for the next eight years, El Mercurio reported. Negotiations are ongoing.
Photo courtesy of Aguas Pacífico
