The Valdivia Pulp Mill or Planta Valdivia is a pulp mill and biomass-fueled

electrical generating station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

San José de la Mariquina Mariquina is a commune in southern Chile, Valdivia Province, Los Ríos Region. It is located about 40 km northeast of Valdivia, close to Cruces River. The capital is the city of San José de la Mariquina. The commune's main economic activitie ...

Los Ríos Region The Los Ríos Region (Spanish: ''Región de Los Ríos'', , ''Region of the Rivers'') is one of Chile's 16 regions, the country's first-order administrative divisions. Its capital is Valdivia. It began to operate as a region on October 2, 2007 ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Although the main activity is

wood pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...

production, it also generates 61 MW of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

from the burning of volatiles and black liquor.Electricity generation capacity of Chile
b
Comisión Nacional de Energía
/ref> The plant was built in 2004 and is owned by

Celulosa Arauco y Constitución Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (also called CELCO or ARAUCO) is a Chilean wood pulp, engineered wood and forestry company controlled by Anacleto Angelini's economic group; Empresas Copec. In 2006 CELCO/ARAUCO had five pulp mills in Chile and o ...

also called CELCO.

Río Cruces contamination controversy

In 2004 and 2005 thousands of

black-necked swan The black-necked swan (''Cygnus melancoryphus'') is a species of waterfowl in tribe Cygnini of subfamily Anserinae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bir ...

s in the

Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary Río Cruces Chorocamayo Nature Sanctuary (Spanish: Santuario de la naturaleza Carlos Anwandter) is protected wetland in Cruces River about north of Valdivia, Chile. The sanctuary is named after the German politician Carlos Anwandter who settled i ...

in Chile died or migrated away following major contamination by a newly opened CELCO pulp mill located near the city of Mariquina and

Cruces River The Cruces River ( es, Río Cruces) is a river in south-central Chile. Río Cruces originates from hills near the Villarica volcano and flows then in south-west direction. The southern and final part of the river flows in a south-south-west di ...

which feeds the wetlands. By August 2005, the birds in the sanctuary had been "wiped out"; only four birds could be observed from a population formerly estimated at 5,000 birds. Autopsies on dead swans attributed the deaths to high levels of iron and other metals polluting the water. The company had been dumping dioxins and heavy metals into the river illegally from a wastetube that had not been approved by the authorities. The plant was closed in 2005 after the company's lawyers reportedly produced a misleading environmental study regarding pollution on the Cruces River. The scandal prompted Celco's chief executive to resign in June 2005 and the company to pledge to adopt cleaner technologies. The plant reopened two months later at limited production capacity. Even in 2006 the Latin American water tribunal recommended to close down the mill. In July 2007 CELCO agreed to pay $614 million Chilean pesos to

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau R ...

n tourism companies to avoid legal actions for supposed losses of the tourism sector of Valdivia due to contamination of Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary. In a document signed the tourism company's CELCO was exempted from all responsibility involving the contamination of Cruces River. CELCO also promised to pay $2 million monthly each of the coming three years to promote tourism.Economía y Negocios Online
/ref> Also, a local resident group was formed named Accion por los Cisnes ("Action for the Swans"). This kept up a constant complaint to the government officials about the issue and looked for environmental reparation. In 2014 the state of defense council filed against CELCO in a lawsuit. The Civil Court of Valdivia ordered CELCO a series of measures to repair and mitigate the damage to the wetland. The first was to conduct a biological and chemical study about the actual situation. They were also to create an artificial wetland upon the river from where the dumping was made. Then there was to be five years of environmental impact monitoring, and the creation of a wetland research with community engagement.

References

External links

Case study
on the

EIA Eia or EIA may refer to: Medicine * Enzyme immunoassay * Equine infectious anemia * Exercise-induced anaphylaxis * Exercise-induced asthma * External iliac artery Transport * Edmonton International Airport, in Alberta, Canada * Erbil Internation ...

of the pulp mill {{Energy in Chile Biofuel power stations in Chile Buildings and structures in Los Ríos Region Energy infrastructure in Los Ríos Region Pulp and paper mills Environment of Chile Celulosa Arauco y Constitución