The protection of the huemul and its habitat were determining elements in the decision of the Third Environmental Court, which in its ruling dated February 8, annulled the environmental qualification resolution (RCA) of the transmission line project that will allow evacuation the energy generated by the future hydroelectric plant of the Nueva La Punilla reservoir.
The Court, with jurisdiction between Ñuble and Magallanes, accepted the claims presented (R-20-2020 and R-21-2020) by residents of San Fabián against Ex. Res. No. 20201610121, of June 2, 2020, issued by the Evaluation Commission of the Ñuble Region, which rejected the request for invalidation of Ex. Res. No. 289, of October 10, 2018, of the Evaluation Commission of the Biobío Region, which favorably rated the study environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the “1X220 KV Punilla-San Fabián Transmission Line” project. In the ruling, the Court annulled both resolutions.
One of the issues discussed was the impact on the huemul. The complainants alleged that there were methodological irregularities in the determination of the baseline and the impacts of the project on the population of said species, as well as in the delimitation of the compensation area intended for it, considering its status as an endangered species.
To this end, the Court noted that the compensation measure for said habitat was approved considering general criteria for the selection of the future property. However, this decision “does not allow us to determine, within the framework of the environmental assessment procedure, whether the compensation measure is actually appropriate to fulfill its purpose. This is relevant given that compensation assumes the existence of a set of environmental components (habitat) that will suffer a significant alteration (which cannot be mitigated or repaired), so it is essential to evaluate whether those proposed as replacements comply with the same environmental function and have similar characteristics.”
Native forest
Regarding the impacts on the flora component, the Court stated that the effect of habitat fragmentation has been theoretically ruled out, using a decontextualized and erroneous quote about the functioning of natural populations. Furthermore, modeling to rule out synergistic effects on habitat fragmentation provided results that were not compared with real values or expected values that provide a technical criterion for ruling out effects. Likewise, it was not explained how the values in the modeling results table support the absence of synergistic effects in fragmentation.
Also regarding this component, the court considered that the extension of monitoring associated with the germplasm collection compensation measure, associated with the degradation of the forest in the project environment, should cover a period where it is feasible to determine the success of the plantation. and that should be supported by antecedents linked to growth rates and survival of the species. Furthermore, it concluded that an adequate monitoring period for the component, according to specialized literature, should have been greater than 10 years, making it inappropriate to associate this period with the statute of limitations for violations of Law 20,283.
In turn, the Court accepted the claimants’ allegation regarding the improper consideration of the impacts on certain species of the flora component due to the habitat fragmentation that the transmission line would cause.
Finally, the allegations and reasons for accepting the claims included concerns about aspects such as the lack of foundation in the determination of the buffer zone around the project, as well as certain aspects of the evaluation of the human environment component.
The project
The EIA of the project was presented in 2017 by the concessionaire Astaldi, and as indicated, it considers the construction and operation of a single-circuit transmission line, with a nominal voltage of 220 kV, 23 kilometers in length, intended for injection of the energy generated by the Punilla Hydroelectric Power Plant. The line will be located between the electrical substation of the future La Punilla Reservoir and the San Fabián substation, north of the Ñuble River and route N-31.
At that time, an investment of US$9.2 million was projected for its completion.
Due to the end of the concession contract with the Astaldi company, ownership of the project passed into the hands of the Ministry of Public Works in 2021, which is currently carrying out a bidding process for a new concession for the reservoir.
