On August 20th, 2003 Global Response reported that the Canadian company Noranda yesterday withdrew its Environmental Impact Assessment for its Alumysa Project in the Aisen region of southern Chile. Chilean environmental organizations say the company knew its EIA would not be approved, especially after President Ricardo Lagos publicly criticized the project last week.
Chilean environmental authorities made 1,400 criticisms of an earlier version of the Alumysa EIA. The Aisen community created a "Reserve of Life" to block the project, which would have dammed three watersheds and destroyed temperate rainforests to power a huge aluminum processing plant on the pristine Patagonian coast.
Global Response organized an international letter-writing campaign beginning in August 2002, urging President Lagos to reject the Alumysa project.
Noranda may bide its time hoping for a more favorable political climate to resubmit its EIA, so local and international environmental organizations will keep a close watch on the situation. Meanwhile, let's celebrate this victory with the Aisen community and its Reserve of Life.
