Expert warns of environmental approval risk for US$3.5bn Chile port project

The environmental approval of San Antonio’s planned US$3.5bn port is likely to end up in the courts due to project impact concerns and shortcomings of Chile’s environmental protection framework, according to a local expert.

“Our current environmental evaluation system is already stretched out thin,” said Ximena Insunza, a researcher at the environmental law center of Universidad de Chile.

Insunza was speaking on a webinar about the port project’s environmental impact that was held by the architecture faculty of Universidad Católica.

The project entails the construction of two terminals, each with an area of 98.2ha, two berths of 730m, and the installation of a 4km breakwater. Once completed, the port is expected to handle 6mn TEUs annually.

Highlighting the fact that the last substantial modifications to Chile’s environmental evaluation system SEIA were made in 2010, Insunza said the current model does not cover aspects such as coastal erosion or tidal waves, which are issues that have been raised in the discussion about the San Antonio mega-port project.

To address these issues, the port would have to “incorporate another type of infrastructure” that employs nature-based solutions, such as supporting nearby ecosystems that can attenuate water flow and flooding, instead of developing activities on top of them, she said.

Given the high rate of approvals at environmental evaluation service SEA, the port project is set to obtain approval this year, but the problematic issues are likely to see it end up in the courts, according to Insunza.

“Our institutionalism, be it environmental or territorial, won’t be able to answer these challenges,” said Insunza, who added that this situation will keep repeating itself with other projects.

Some projects that were initially approved by SEA and later tossed out by the courts include the Castilla thermoelectric complex and a blasting operation at the Mina Invierno coal mine.