Chile Forum

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we had a few phone conversations and some meeting with people concerned. Our source at Pumalin park seems to think the Futa dam is inevitable. The issue is when. That said, we had another conversation with a local government official who believed that the Futa project was on a long-term hold because the road from Futa to Chaiten work had been put on hold to task the money and machinery to the Pumalin park road. The road from Futa to Chaiten would be needed for any dam project to be seriously considered a viable concern.

I think it all means this news is a wash, and the Pumalin road is more to run power lines to Baker river project. However, once done that does make a major hurdle to the building dams on the other rivers in the south a little more easy. Still, the rate of progress on all of these projects is an easy 10 years before anything really happens beyond press conferences. A lot can happen in 10 years. As far as we understand Endesa does not have even the approvals yet for the projects on any of the rivers, let alone a way to get power out of the area.

Just read this very interesting interview with Doug Tompkins on the guardian.co.uk site (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... -mcdougall).
john

Interesting article, but I wish it had more info on the effects of the Volcano on Pumalin. For months, now it appears that the winds have been carrying what ash there is to the northeast and over Pumalin. Most news available is from the early days of the eruption.I'm also curious as to how the Chaiten eruption and the effects on the port will effect the decision to build "the Road"

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News item today on Golborne (Public Works minister) meeting with Tompkins regarding the expropriation proceedings for the remaining section of Carretera Austral.

Golborne personally informed Tompkins that there would be expropriations of part of Parque Pumalin for the roadway.

The meeting follows last week's special session in the lower house of the Chilean congress on the subject, where the legislature has been pushing for long-delayed action on completing the section of road that was to pass through the park.

During the meeting Golborne indicated that he hoped for cooperation from Tompkins and the park foundation, but that there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the expropriations would take place and the road would be built according to the government's decision on the best route, with or without the eventual cooperation from Tompkins.