The Jáchal River is a river in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of San Juan,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It is part of the Desaguadero River basin, and one of the most important permanent watercourses in the province, with an average flow of . It is born from the confluence of the Río de la Palca and the Blanco River, in the northwest of San Juan.

Course

From its origin, the Jáchal flows south for , up to a

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...

range, in a place called Cuesta del Viento. There, it turns eastward towards the city of

San José de Jáchal San José de Jáchal (, often shortened to Jáchal) is a city in the northeast of the province of San Juan, Argentina, located on National Route 40, south of the Jáchal River. It has 21,018 inhabitants per the , and is the head town of the Jácha ...

, flowing for along a steep gorge. Upon reaching Jáchal, the river turns south again for , and then northeast-southeast, passing by the towns of Tucunuco and Mogna. It then flows and empties into the upper Desaguadero River (here known as Bermejo). The Jáchal River is fed primarily by snow thaw, rainfall being only a minor contribution in this semi-arid region. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers an area of , or around if considered up to Cuesta del Viento. The river is

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

med in two points: * The Cuesta del Viento Dam, from Jáchal, has a maximum volume of . It is used to regulate and direct the flow for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

, and long-delayed works are in progress to finish a hydroelectric

power 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 ...

. * The Salto de la Loma hydroelectric plant, northwest of Jáchal, employs a high fall and has an installed power of about 1,200 kW.

Environmental issues

The Jáchal is the most important natural source of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use in its valley, but the quality of its waters is not considered good in normal conditions, due to a high mineralization, especially

salts In chemistry, a salt is a chemical compound consisting of an ionic assembly of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, which results in a compound with no net electric charge. A common example is table salt, with positively c ...

and boron content. The latter has been found in concentrations of 2.8 parts per million (0.7 ppm are considered the upper limit for sensitive crops such as

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

). In the early 2000s,

Barrick Gold Corporation Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrat ...

, a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

enterprise and the largest gold-mining corporation in the world, started a

gold extraction Gold extraction refers to the processes required to extract gold from its ores. The great majority of gold is extracted from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. About 2000 tons are obtained from the earth annually, plus anoth ...

project in the San Juan Andean ranges. Residents of San Juan protested against the project, claiming that the

cyanide process Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonl ...

will pollute the upper courses of the Jáchal and San Juan rivers. In an interview in February 2006, the governor of San Juan, José Luis Gioja, denied the possibility of such damage. In 2015,

admitted that 224,000 liters of "cyanide solution" had spilled into the Jáchal and four other nearby rivers due to what they described as "a faulty valve". While

and the San Juan Mining Chamber insisted that the spill posed "no threat" to the area's population, the provincial government advised that residents only drink bottled water until further notice.

References

External links

CUENCAS HIDRICAS SUPERFICIALES DE LA REPUBLICA ARGENTINA
* Secretaría de Minería de la Nación
Provincia de San Juan - Recursos hídricos
* INTA

* Fundación para la defensa del ambiente (FUNAM)

* CuyoNoticias. ttp://cuyonoticias.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&Itemid=109 ''Manifestación en contra empresa minera internacional.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jachal River Rivers of Argentina Rivers of San Juan Province, Argentina