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ARGENTINA:
Impact of Pulp
Mills Across Border Precedes
Construction
Marcela
Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) -
Residents of the eastern
Argentine province of Entre Ríos,
a short distance away from the
future site of two new pulp
mills in Uruguay, maintain that
the plants have already had an
impact on local economic
activity, despite the fact that
they will not actually open for
another two years.
"Families who depend on fishing
for a living say that no one
wants to buy the fish they catch
out of fear that they're
contaminated," María Elena
Marchioli of the Gualeguaychú
Citizens Environmental Assembly
told IPS. Gualeguaychú is an
Argentine tourist town near the
Uruguay River, which forms part
of the border between the two
South American countries.
In reality, however, the fish
cannot possibly be contaminated,
at least not by pollution from
the pulp mills in Uruguay,
because work has barely begun on
their construction. If anything
is affecting the fishing
industry today, it is fear and
misinformation.
Marchioli is an administrative
clerk at the border post between
the two countries, and is thus
in constant contact with people
from both sides of the river.
Gualeguaychú, a town of 80,000,
is located on the banks of the
river of the same name, 22 km
from where it flows into the
Uruguay River.
On the eastern side of the
Uruguay River is Fray Bentos, a
city of 23,000 inhabitants and
capital of the western Uruguayan
department (province) of Río
Negro.
On the outskirts of Fray Bentos,
with the full backing of the
Uruguayan government, two
foreign companies - ENCE of
Spain and Botnia of Finland -
are both building pulp mills
scheduled to enter into
operation in 2007.
But the location of the plants
has been questioned by
Argentina, which shares in the
management of the use of the
Uruguay River.
The two companies, whose mills
will be a mere 10 km apart, plan
to invest a total of 1.8 billion
dollars. But environmental
organisations have pointed out
that of this total, over 80
percent will be spent on
equipment purchased in their
base countries in Europe.
Botnia has confirmed that only
20 percent of its investment
corresponds to domestic
suppliers, while the rest will
go towards imported materials.
However, once the mill is up and
running, local companies will be
given a greater share of this
business, the company maintains.
The two mills together are
projected to produce around 1.5
million tons of pulp for paper
production annually, double the
amount currently produced by a
dozen mills currently operating
in Argentina along the Paraná
River.
This high volume of output will
require around 600 workers in
total, most of whom will need to
be highly skilled.
The small number of direct jobs
generated relative to the huge
investment involved is one of
the aspects that has stirred up
controversy.
The sectors that support the
projects believe that the
indirect employment created both
during the construction of the
mills and after they are in
operation should be taken into
account. But opponents warn that
there will be greater losses
than benefits for the local
population.
Pulp production is one of the
most highly polluting industrial
activities because it releases
dioxins and furans, carcinogenic
chemical substances that have
also been shown to weaken the
immune system and cause hormonal
and neurological damage to
humans. The northeastern region
of Argentina, bordering on
Uruguay and Brazil, is ideal for
the installation of pulp mills
given the accessibility of river
transportation and large
plantations of eucalyptus trees,
a favoured raw material for pulp
production.
But the severe environmental
impact of ENCE plants in the
northwestern Spanish province of
Pontevedra and the southern
Chilean region of Valdivia have
led residents in the area around
the future sites of the new
mills to fear the potential
water, air and soil pollution
they will cause once they are
operational.
Raúl Estrada Oyuela, director of
environmental affairs at the
Argentine Foreign Ministry,
commented that his government
"cannot prevent" the mills from
being built in Uruguay. It can,
however, demand that no damage
be incurred by Argentina as a
result, and if damages are
caused, it can also demand
compensation.
Of course, it would be
preferable if this point were
never reached, said the
official, who added that
Argentina's main concern is to
ensure that no harmful pollution
is generated. But up until now,
he added, all efforts make in
this regard have been in vain.
"Uruguay only wants to monitor
the water, but what are we going
to monitor? The disaster?" he
asked.
Estrada Oyuela is a member of
the binational joint commission
created to study the impact of
the mills being built on the
eastern shore of the Uruguay
River. But during the eight
meetings that have been held so
far, there has been no precise
information supplied regarding
the industrial process to be
used, the water recycling
system, or emissions of gases
and solid wastes, he stressed.
Environmentalists recommend that
the water be reused within the
plant itself through a
closed-loop system, but Botnia
has found this technology
unsatisfactory in Finland,
according to company
spokespersons.
Botnia has stated that it will
use elemental chlorine free (ECF)
rather than totally chlorine
free (TCF) technology in the
pulp bleaching process at its
future mill in Uruguay.
While cleaner and safer than
older technologies, ECF
processes still use chlorine
compounds, which are the source
of the harmful dioxins and
furans.
Estrada Oyuela believes that
both Botnia and ENCE should use
the cleanest technologies
possible, since the mills will
be located extremely close to
human settlements and tourism
areas. However, neither company
has pledged to do so in the
reports they have submitted.
The joint commission's first
findings will be released in
late January.
In May, Argentine President
Néstor Kirchner asked Uruguayan
President Tabaré Vázquez to halt
work on the projects until a
full independent environmental
impact study could be completed.
His request was turned down, on
the grounds that commitments had
already been made to the
companies by the previous
administration of Jorge Batlle
(2000-2005).
According to Estrada Oyuela,
many of the commission's
requests for more information
from the Uruguayan government
are answered with the response,
"to be confirmed later." But in
this case, he stressed, "there
is no later," since the mills
are already under construction
and will be ready to open in
2007 and 2008.
The Foreign Ministry official
believes that non-governmental
organisations should work more
actively to support the demands
of residents on the Argentine
side of the Uruguay River, and
to warn shareholders in both
foreign companies that they
could be obliged to provide
compensation for those affected
by any eventual environmental
damage.
In the meantime, the people of
Entre Ríos maintain the impact
of the mills is already being
felt in the region.
As a consequence of the
expansion of the eucalyptus
plantations created to produce
pulpwood, families in the town
of Cerro Alegre, in the
Uruguayan department of Soriano,
have had to have drinking water
brought in by tanker trucks
since the 1990s, since the
fast-growing trees have absorbed
all of the water in the area's
wells, streams and marshland.
Agricultural technician
Alejandro Gaham, a member of the
Gualeguaychú Citizens
Environmental Assembly, told IPS
that 60 loggers from that town
had voiced their concerns to the
group after being fired this
month from the sawmill where
they had been working. "They
told them that they're going to
save the forest to sell it to
Botnia," said Gaham.
The Finnish company owns 100,000
hectares of land in Uruguay, of
which 60,000 has been planted
with trees for pulpwood, while
ENCE owns another 85,000
hectares of plantations. But
when the mills are in operation,
they will require 3.5 million
cubic metres of wood a year.
Botnia has not ruled out the
possibility of buying wood from
eucalyptus plantations in the
Argentine provinces of Entre
Ríos and Corrientes.
The company notes in its own
impact study that sawmills on
the Argentine side of the river
- which currently employ around
1,500 workers, according to
Gaham - will experience a
decrease in activity in the
mid-term, but adds that they use
"obsolete" technology.
The effects of the pulp mill
controversy are also being felt
by the tourism industry.
Gualeguaychú receives around
600,000 visitors a year, a third
of them during the carnival
season. Gaham reported that
investment in hotels in the area
has dropped off over fears of
the "rotten egg smell"
associated with pulp mills.
In this regard, the companies
have pledged to do everything
possible to neutralise the odour
produced by emissions from the
mills, but they admit that there
will be days when the unpleasant
smell is unavoidable.
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