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In Chile's Patagonia region, tiny Caleta Tortel sits downstream of the sites for proposed Baker River dams. If just one of the dams were to fail, the village would be washed into the Pacific.
Where the Baker River meets the Pacific Ocean, a plume of sediment and nutrients flows about 125 miles into the sea. This rich organic matter helps support the incredible diversity of life in the area's fjords, from tiny krill to enormous whales.
On the eastern side of this confluence, Caleta Tortel stands on stilts, interwoven with walkways made from local cypress trees. This manufactured elevation protects the village, population 300, from the Baker's rise and fall -- even from the extreme deluges created by glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
But should one of the proposed dams fail, Tortel would be washed out to sea.
In Tortel we meet with the mayor, Bernardo López. He tells us that despite HydroAysén’s promises of development and revenue for the region, the town voted against the company's dam proposal. People are worried for the town's safety, as well as preserving its natural resources and holding onto its cultural heritage. All are at risk if the dams get built.
Bernardo López, mayor of Tortel
Mayor López also describes Tortel’s plan to install more solar panels for lighting the docks and walkways in town. The region of Aysén, where Tortel is located and where the Baker and Pascua Rivers flow, already meets most of its current electricity needs using energy generated from wind turbines, solar panels, and small-scale hydropower projects.
Fossil-fuel-powered generating stations are sometimes used during the winter, when hydropower plants operate more fitfully. But the regional energy company, Edel Aysen, hopes to make these stations obsolete by investing in more wind turbines
Wind farm outside of Coyhaique
Leaving Tortel, we travel over 1,500 miles north to Santiago, Chile’s capital. Here is where the decisions affecting Patagonia’s future will be made, regardless of the votes or sentiments of local Patagonian communities like Tortel. The electricity from the five dams proposed for the Baker and Pascua rivers would deliver a promised 2.7 gigawatts to Santiago, to power the nation's central grid. Not one watt is for Aysén.
Santiago, Chile
In Santiago, we meet with the general manager of HydroAysén, Hernan Salazar. He makes a well-crafted case for the dam project -- as does HydroAysén’s multi-million dollar ad campaign. Designed and implemented by the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller, the ads saturate television, radio, and print media with slogans about “clean and sustainable energy.”
But there are other ideas in Chile about what this really means and a strong desire among the people for truly clean energy.
A HydroAysén billboard advocates for the company's hydroelectric dam project, which would not supply any energy to the Aysén region where the dams would be located.
At the University of Chile, we meet with professors Roberto Román and Stephen Hall, co-authors of an NRDC-sponsored energy study published in June 2009.
Hall, a renewable energy and energy-efficiency expert, works for the government preparing energy-efficiency plans for Chile. Román, a mechanical engineer, is currently investigating the Atacama Desert’s abundant solar potential as a means to power Chile’s future energy needs. The highest and driest desert in the world, the Atacama has barely been tapped for energy generation. With existing technologies in solar, wind, and geothermal, Román believes Chile has the opportunity to bring enough power on-line to make the dams unnecessary. And this can be done sooner, less destructively, and located much closer to demand, especially since Chile's largest consumer of energy is the mining industry in the Atacama.
Together, the scientists make a rock-solid case that HydroAysén dams would not be clean, sustainable, or necessary!
Their voices resonate with many people in Chile. But they are being drowned out by HydroAysén’s money and influence. So in Aysén and throughout Chile, communities are divided over the fate of Patagonia.
Solar panel, University of Chile, Santiago
With this dam project, Chile is on the verge of a monumental decision that will impact its future energy priorities, along with two of the world's purest free-flowing rivers, one of its last great wilderness gems, and a frontier culture being pushed ever closer to extinction.
Are the dams necessary? What would their impacts be? What other options exist for generating energy? Our documentary, Patagonia Rising, explores these questions through the eyes of those who would be most affected, bringing them to the forefront of the controversy. Through the film, we want to crystallize the issues, reveal what will be lost if the dams are built, and illuminate an alternative path.
Please visit our website for more information about the project, and consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us finish the film. Every dollar gets us closer to completing Patagonia Rising this year, while it can still influence Chile’s decision to dam or not to dam Patagonia. Your support can help make this happen.
Saludos!
Read all the posts in this series, and learn more about saving the Patagonia wilderness at NRDC's BioGems web site.
As Greg Miller found in Tortel, I also found that the people living in small towns in Chile's Patagonia region are remarkably farsighted about the future. They have deliberately chosen small, remote towns as offering a better future for their children than a larger city with fancier lifestyles. Yet these communities, as well as Patagonian wilderness, would be lost if these dams are developed. The construction boom alone with its mostly male workers and facilities for them would bring terrible changes for these small towns. And the people in these towns are right when they say there are alternatives for Chile's development. But without strong international protest, the Baker and Pascua Rivers are likely to repeat the sad story of the Columbia and other wild rivers in the United States.