Valdivia and the Cruces Nature Sanctuary

I finally made it to the real "field" - out of Santiago, down south, to Valdivia. Many people who live in Santiago are from the South, and they return for holidays to their family village in the South. Whereas in Spain anyone will tell you that they come from the village of Villanueva del Sarampión, between the river Chascón and the town of Macondo, and expect you to know where that is and remember it, in Santiago its only the South. An expanse of 2000 km down the Carretera Austral (highway), about 200 km wide, with forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, fjords, glaciers, rain, rain, rain and colder and colder and darker and darker. This generic South reflects decades of prejuidice against the huaso (cowboy) from the country, badly received in the city. The South also has a history of rebellion. The Mapuches are the only native people to not have capitulated to the Spanish, and these lands were not part of Spain or Chile until the 1890s. The encomiendas (hacienda) system here was weaker than in most other corners of the Spanish empire, so the social system was less rigidly stratified than in Central Chile. Chile's first federal constitution was born in Valdivia (later killed by the Santiago elites). By the 1570s the Spanish had a steady presence here (extremely early for Chile, which was a faraway and marginal colony), with a fort. Valdivia was a military enclave in Indian country, the first Pacific port after the Magellan Straights. The Spanish lost Valdivia several times, the Dutch reclaimed it, the Spanish returned, and much later it became Chile. The city has also been detroyed by 4 massive earthquakes, roughly 100 years apart, and a fire (the city was practically all made of wood). The 1960 earthquake is the strongest on record in the world (9.5 richter scale); it destroyed the city, flooded it in the following tsunami, and radically changed the surrounding countryside.

Valdivia is located at the confluence of two rivers, Cruces and Valdivia (also called Calle Calle), about 20 kilometers inland from the ocean. An island is created where these two rivers meet, and Valdivia straddles the island and land in front of it. North of this island is a wetland area formed by three big and three small rivers, plus a series of canals that connect them. The wetland is an estuary, where ocean tides control the height of the water in the system, the rate of outflow of water from the land into the ocean, and vice versa. Salt and sweet water mix, hot and cold water. The 1960 earthquake created the wetland proper because large expanses of land surrounding the rivers collapsed and became inundated. From neat winding rivers, a mass of shallow water, with small islands, and somewhat delimited rivers came to exist; the tops of the old fences of the inundated farms are still visible. The area was inundated by new flora and bird species, the most emblematic the black neck swan. This is the largest aquatic bird in Chile, and an average of 5,000 swans lived in the wetland and had it as their main nesting site. The site became a protected Ramsar Wetland Sanctuary in 1981, one of Chile's first international environmental obligations.

In 1995 the company Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (Celco), owned by one of Chile's richest families, the Angelini group, started publicly prospecting a site north of Valdivia on the Cruces river to locate its third celulose plant, approximately 25 km up-river from the wetland Sanctuary. Where and how to dispose of the toxic liquid efluents was a problem from the start. One alternative was to build a 40 km tube to dispose of them at sea, at the bay of Mehuín. Another (more expensive) option was to build a tertiary treatment plant and dispose of them into the river Cruces. The community of Mehuín opposed their plans and blocked - with some violence - the efforts of Celco and their scientists to take samples for the environmental impact assessment (EIA). They accused University Austral - a major icon of Valdivia and actor in the city's identity and affairs - of collaborating with Celco through the EIA process and evicted them from Mehuín, forcing them to abandon their ocean research station. They identified the EIA as the weakest part of the process of approving projects; while the process professes to be technical in the end the technical voice is reduced to just one vote of many. They lost all trust in the University when it announced that though it was a member of the community of Mehuín, as a scientific institution it could not refuse to collaborate with others and would be happy to contribute by monitoring the effluent and its impact on the bay.

In 1998 Celco got approval for its EIA and began construction of the celulose plant. President Frei attended the inauguration where the first stone was laid; significantly, this happened before the EIA had been approved, underscoring the degree of political support for the project. The plant began operating in February 2004, after several irregularities and two weeks before it was authorized to do so. By October 2004, the main aquatic plant of the wetland - luchecillo or egeria densa - had disappeared and with it the black neck swan. The next year saw Chile's largest social movement and first environmental disaster; the city of Valdivia went into rage at the destruction of the wetland. From a monthly average of 5,000 swans in the sanctuary, there were less than 300 by February 2005, and the stench from the plant filled the air of the whole area, making children sick. The only thing to have changed in 2004 was the coming into operation of the plant. For Valdivians it is "common sense" that the plant caused the damage. For Celco, solid proof that they are solely responsible is required. Scientists were called on by the government and Celco to find the necessary proof.

Government authorities hired U. Austral scientists, private consultants and later University of Chile scientists to study the issue. Celco hired scientists from the Catholic University, EULA center at the University of Concepción, and private consultants from abroad, to produce a counter-narrative. Austral scientists produced a report blaming Celco; pollutants from the plant caused heavy metals in the water to coagulate and deposit themselves on the luchecillo plant, hindering its capacity to photosynthesize. As the luchecillo died, iron was released from the sediments in the river, further killing the luchecillo and making the water brown and turpid. All the other scientific groups to study the issue did not find Celco to be responsible. The Catholic U. didn't propose any alternative hypothesis but conducted experiments in which they conclude the luchecillo actually grows better in polluted water. EULA and the consultants produced reports saying that although Celco had polluted the water, and on occassion violated the norms that applied to it, the quantities were not enough to have an effect on local life. The U. of Chile hypothesized that the level of the river had been particularly low in 2004 due to a unique combination of cold temperatures, little rainfall and increased erosion from large scale forestry (also the responsibility of Celco), that increased sediments and reduced water. The luchecillo, exposed out of the water, froze. Another scientist - from the original Austral group - argued that increased UV radiation killed the luchecillo in the sanctuary and in other lakes in the region. Austral argued no; there is plenty of luchecillo in areas of the sanctuary out of the reach of Celco's pollution; UV radiation would affect everything not just luchecillo; and there were no exceptional weather patterns in 2004. Only their hypothesis explains 'everything': the disappearance of luchecillo, the changed chemical composition of the water, the changed color, the disappeared swans and other birds.

I have spent the last two weeks interviewing some of the scientists involved in the case, some of the citizens who continue to fight against Celco and reading the 5,000 page transcript of the civil suit against Celco, led by the State, for reparations for environmental damage. I obviously don't know what happened and am in no position to judge. I'm struggling to summarize what happened in a way that is faithful to the scale and acrimony of the conflict and it not stuck on the technical details that have overwhelmed the larger picture. Celco pursued a strategy of "confuse and conquer" supported by the traditions of Chilean science and environmental laws. It is easy to confuse and conquer when laws are arbitrarily expressed in different units of measurement (miligrams per liter, tons per day); when scienitsts can't agree if they are talking about a river, a wetland or an estuary, each with very different implications for how sediments settle, how much water there is a in a river and how it flows (or doesn't) out to sea; when environmental values are weak and tolerate discussions about the ecological value of a non-native, invasive, plague plant like the luchecillo, that supported an amazing population of birds; when there are no agreed-upon experts and the adequate role of science has to be constantly reaffirmed. No one I have asked can name to me the national experts on wetlands, estuaries or pollution; they do agree that experts need to have relevant experience. Experience that seems hard to get in Chile, where so little science has been done for so long, evidenced by the constant lack of data on evolutions and trends. So Celco called as witnesses a huge array of different "experts" and this can not be contested; so they proceed to question experts on topics outside their area of expertise and expose them as "not knowing". So the scientist-witnesses constantly defend the "scientific method" but have no arguments against Celco's arguments that science can not prove anything, it can merely provide approximations until further information is available. Some scientists argue no objectivity is possible (a view echoed by some government agencies), and fall into a trap where they "know" something to have happened out of common sense - Celco polluted - and propose a "scientific mechanism" to show causality - the pollution changed water quality and luchecillo's capacity to photosynthesize -  but also argue they can never prove this because science is always correcting itself. Nevertheless, they claim, the scientific method can help you understand "anything, even if you are not an expert".

The final intervening variable is the money. Financing gives and takes away prestige and legitimacy. In Mehuín, the Austral U. was Goliath, a local actor that seemed capable of helping the town defend itself from the effluent tube but decided not to because it was in their self-interest to have long-term contracts with Celco for monitoring. Nationally, the Austral U. was David, a local actor defending its wetland from Celco's greed and power to buy Santiago-based universities and scientists, heroically resisting Celco's money against the current set by all the other universities. In court they said: if you want to know what happened, we have to look at the sediment records, and for that we need another US$250,000. Science won't tell us what happened, money will. Finally in 2011, the day I arrived in Valdivia, Austral U. joined the current and signed a collaboration agreement with Celco. Scientists are not sanguine on the issue; they have to participate to not become marginal outsiders, but know their credibility will suffer. One scientist who has been monitoring the luchecillo plant over the past few years was preparing to publish a report about it in March; the plant seems to be recovering and swans are returning. But now that Celco pays the university, who will believe him?

Finally, the conflict continues. A few months ago the environmental authorities approved Celco's EIA to build the effluent tube to Mehuín. The community again opposed the scientific measurements but was destroyed by Celco who bought out families and different unions (large one time payments plus 10 year salaries at the minimum wage level), and took measurements by stealth (at night, during the national holiday). But the terms of approval make the tube uneconomical and Celco still doesn't have all the necessary permits and seems unlikely to get them for some time. They need the tube to increase their production. Now, effluent undergoes tertiary treatment and is dumped into the river. The civil case continues in court. My birthday present this year is the final "expert report" requested by the Civil Court of Valdivia to make a final decision on whether Celco is guilty and must pay the government reparations for the damage to the wetland (Jan. 27th). So I have two more weeks in Valdivia and plenty of reading and digesting to do...

Valdivia's fish market. Fishing and shellfish collection are the main economic activity for the local population. But they are not the main economic activity: that is forestry, controlled by Celco.

The city of Valdivia by the river Calle Calle

Graffiti about the death of the black neck swans. Emaciated swans fell from the sky into people's backyards  and on highways, trying to escape the wetland where no more food was available. They couldn't fly or hold their heads out of the water they were so weak (and had iron poisoning).

Children became major actors in the movement to protect the swans and the wetland from Celco's pollution.

The bay of Mehuín. This small fishing and shellfish collecing village lives off the sea; only the ocean gives life and value to the area. It is everything they see and all economic an social life revolves around the bay and the ocean. The effluent tube would come out straight through the middle of the beach.

The Mehuín radicals that opposed the EIA tests. Ines' family moved to the top of the hill (only accessible on foot) after the 1960 earthquake and tsunami destroyed their house and carried away 8 relatives. She still is terrified of the sea but has worked hard to defend it from pollution for the past 14 years.

Exploring the sanctuary on kayak. This small tour agency was taking off when the disaster struck. They had to find new routes and reinvent themselves. They visit the sanctualy only when German and American tourists show up wanting to visit the sanctuary to see the destruction.

Entering the Cruces River Wetland Sanctuary. Before the crisis, in addition to these junco reeds, there was tons of luchecillo, an aquatic plant that looks like an algae.

The wetland with some swans. They are returning. In our three hour trip we saw several mothers with baby swans. They climb on top of their mothers and the whole family swims along (swans are monogamous partners for life, hence human's fascination with them??- that's another dissertation)

The wetland sanctuary. Before the earthquake only the water area at the back of the photo was river. 

It rains ALL the time, so the flowers are really beautiful, especially the hydrangeas. Remember, its summer here. This is their summer! rainy and cloudy and pretty cold.

If you have read all this and have comments please tell me- is it interesting, boring, duh so what, confusing? gracias amigos!