Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
glacier melt has now reversed into a hydrological deficit. As climate change impacts
further reduce the capacity of the Andean natural storage (i.e. glaciers and snow
pack), irrigators and water managers have stepped up their demands for the increasingly
drought-prone Aconcagua River to be more regulated, with the construction of at
least two new dams, and a battery of wells.
9.2.2
Converging Threats: Non-climatic Drivers
While the focus has been on water quantity, a number of issues were raised by
agricultural and utility stakeholders about the combined impacts of mining, urbanism
and drought for water quality. ESVAL's water rights in Estero Riecillos, in the high
Andes in the upper part of the watershed, have become increasingly impacted by
the expansion of Mina Andina. Mina Andina is not only using water from Riecillos,
but there are additional reports on the impacts of mining activities on the glacier
itself, thereby further exacerbating the increasingly stressed situation. Transparency
over mining activities or planned activities is difficult, but within the basin, it is
common knowledge that CODELCO are constructing some of the largest covered
mines in Chile (reportedly to be larger than Coquichamaca), but this evidence must
be taken as hearsay since public knowledge is limited due to the secrecy of the
company itself, and the lack of transparency concerning approved project plans, as
well as the fact that water rights for glaciers do not exist.
Another aggravating factor on water quality is the increasing growth of urban
areas, in particular the associated littering of vulnerable waterways (canals) with
urban waste. Irrigators from the third section noted that they had to remove between
1 and 9 m 3 of domestic waste from the canals that passed near Quillota. The impacts
from this pollution were intensified during each period of drought. Another issue
that affects water resources across the central and northern parts of Chile is the over
exploitation and illegal extraction of water resources, both surface and ground
(including aquifers). Hydropower companies also have extraction points in the river
( compuertas ), higher up in the watershed, where water is pumped from one point in
the river, used for electricity generation, and then pumped in at another part, creat-
ing relatively drier sections at the extraction points. Illegal extraction is not just an
issue for water resources, but also in terms of ground bed of the rivers. Irrigators
reported that the Aconcagua has recently been extensively, and illegally, mined,
with stones and gravel removed from the river bed during recent construction of the
state highway.
For example, between Punta del Rey and San Felipe in section one, reportedly
4 million m 3 of sand in the last 3 years, gravel and rocks had been removed from
the river by different companies under the auspices of the state government. The
law states that if you remove more than 100,000 m 3 of gravel from the river (Water
Code, Art 32; Environmental Law, Art 27) then an EIA should be completed. In order
to circumvent the law once a company removed 99,000 m 3 , the extraction company
was allegedly changed every 99,000 m 3 until the 4,000,000 m 3 reached for the project.
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