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Water demands draining US rivers
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ENVIRONMENT BRIEFS
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Court OKs Canadian dam over heavy opposition
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Research group alleges Dupont withheld toxic finding

Washington, DC, Apr. 14 (ENS)— The Environmental Working Group (EWG) alleges that the DuPont chemical company violated federal law by withholding from the government information on the health risks from perfluorochemicals (PFCs) used to make Teflon.

The environmental research organization is petitioning US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christie Whitman to investigate the chemical giant for withholding the study from the EPA.

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Water demands draining US rivers

By J.R. Pegg

Washington, DC, Apr. 10 (ENS)— Many of America’s rivers are suffering from severe water shortages, with drought and human water consumption placing some of these waterways in acute peril, warns a new report released today by American Rivers.

The conservation organization’s report, “America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2003,” details 10 rivers that face immediate and severe danger, but paints a larger picture of a nation tumbling towards a possible water crisis.

“America’s seemingly insatiable demand for fresh water is nearing nature’s limits,” American Rivers President Rebecca Wodder told reporters at today’s press conference. “And we have designed much of the human landscape to make the problem worse, not better.”

At the center of the concern is a simple fact — the United States uses more water per person than any other country with little regard for waste or cost. The US average of 1,300 gallons per day is some 60 times the average for many developing countries, according to the World Water Council, with some 85 percent used for irrigation.

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Court OKs Canadian dam over heavy opposition

By Stephen Leahy

Toronto, Canada, Apr. 10 (IPS)— Despite intense opposition by civil society groups in Belize and North America, a Belize court ruled this month that giant Canadian power company Fortis can build a dam that will flood a 35-kilometer-long rainforest valley that is home to more than a dozen rare or endangered species.

With Belize government backing, Fortis has made millions of dollars from privatizing the electricity industry in the small Central American country wedged between Mexico and Guatemala with a population of just 250,000 people.

The company intends to build the Chalillo dam, worth $45 million, across the upper Macal river in an area designated a “bio-gem” because of the range of habitats found near the Maya mountains in the country’s southwest region.

“We are pleased with the rulings by the Supreme Court of Belize with respect to the Chalillo Hydroelectric Project and plan to commence construction of the facility in 2003,” Fortis President and CEO Stanley Marshall said in a statement.

Belizian biologist Sharon Matola, who is also director of the Belize Zoo, told listeners at a University of Toronto public forum on the controversial project last month that the dam would destroy prime habitat for many endangered species, including the jaguar and Baird’s tapir. “The valley is the only place left in northern and Central America where one subspecies of Scarlet Macaw breed,” she said. “There are less than 200 left in the wild.”

A report by the Natural History Museum in London, England on the project’s impact on wildlife “highly recommended” that the plan be dropped because of its effects on these and other rare and endangered species, Matola said.

Multinational engineering company AMEC commissioned the report on behalf of Fortis to meet Belize’s requirements for an environmental impact statement (EIS), but the museum’s recommendations were buried in an appendix of the final 1,500-page report.

The Belizian people are against the project because nature tourism is the biggest revenue earner in her country, said Matola. “And our power rates would only go up as a result of this project.”

The Chalillo dam would only generate enough energy to power a few small hotels, according to Robert Kennedy Jr., senior attorney with US-based National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Fortis, a company worth $2 billion, charges the highest electricity rates in South America through its subsidiary, the Belize Electricity Corporation (BECOL), said Kennedy.

“There are other cheaper energy sources in Belize, such as bagasse, which is made from sugar cane residues, and even energy purchased from Mexico would be cheaper,” he added.

“Fortis has an energy monopoly and they’re charging rates three times their highest Canadian rates. These prices will impoverish the Belizian people with the most oppressive energy bills of anyone in Central America.” If the Chalillo project goes forward, Fortis will make $250 million over the lifetime of the dam, Kennedy said.

Not surprisingly, Fortis, which declined to comment for this story, sees things differently. “BECOL has consistently maintained that the Chalillo Project is without doubt the best energy supply option to meet the growing energy demands of Belize,” BECOL Director Lynn Young said in a statement.

Fortis, AMEC, the Belizian ambassador, Canadian government officials, and the head of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) were invited but declined to attend the Toronto forum.

Geological experts hired by Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO) Probe International and NRDC found serious errors in the geological assessment done by AMEC. In fact, the dam could fail because of the underlying porous rock, said Gráinne Ryder, a water resources engineer with Probe. “There are mistakes throughout the EIS,” she said.

“CIDA should be immediately recall the study,” added Ryder. AMEC’s work was paid for by CIDA, Canada’s main aid agency, which gave the EIS considerable legitimacy in the eyes of many, she stated. While CIDA is better known for good works projects throughout the south, it has a little-known division called CIDA-INC that supports Canadian companies working in the south.

CIDA also kept the EIS report secret, leading NGOs to acquire a copy via Canada’s Freedom of Information law. “They’ve kept people from being able to participate and offering alternatives to the dam,” Ryder said.

Disclosure, an investigative TV program of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, discovered that CIDA gave AMEC $466,000 for the study. Over the past 10 years, the company has received contracts worth nearly $50 million from CIDA. Disclosure also found that the contract between CIDA and AMEC requires the engineering company to share revenues with CIDA if it does more work on the Chalillo dam.

The Belize Alliance of Conservation Non-Governmental Organizations (BACONGO), a coalition of more than 10 Belizian groups, challenged the EIS on these and other issues in the Belizian courts. The Appeals court refused to overturn a previous Belize Supreme Court decision that allowed the project to proceed.

“We have been diligent in our efforts to ensure BECOL follows all rules and regulations in getting approvals for construction of the Chalillo Project,” Young stated. “The courts have once again vindicated us from all the misleading and spurious claims of BACONGO and the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council.”

For its part, BACONGO says it plans to use its one last legal avenue and appeal to the UK Privy Council, the final court of appeal for Belize, which gained full independence from Britain in 1981.

“What is at stake in this case is no less than the public’s right to a fair hearing, and we are confident that we will be vindicated,” Matola said. “The children of Belize deserve to live in a world where there are scarlet macaws in the wild.”