Ocean Sentry
(From Global Surf News) Southern Chile”s newest big wave surf site, Santos del Mar, and its surrounding coastline would be polluted if plans go ahead to construct a proposed US$1.3 billion dollar coal-fired power plant on the coastline of Chile’s 7th Region.
Ramon Navarro, Chilean big wave hunter and the pioneer surfer at Santos del Mar, is particularly inspired to fight the project: “This is the biggest and most powerful wave that we”ve ever found in Chile and the area holds numerous other surfing resources that must be protected. Mega-industry will put it at risk with this polluting coal plant, and we must stop it.”
Proposed by international energy giant AES GENER (www.aes.com), development of the “Los Robles Power Plant” would include the construction of a 750-megawatt coal-burning facility and industrial port on the beach near Santos del Mar. Pulverized coal shipments from Australia would be unloaded there, damaging the ecosystem and polluting the ocean with ashes, air pollution and toxic wastewater.
Local surfers and residents are concerned about the environmental degradation that would be caused by burning coal at the facility. Arsenic and lead poisoning of adjacent marine waters and agricultural lands are common from coal burning power plants, and the region surrounding Santos del Mar is remote and rural with plentiful fishing grounds and small-scale agriculture. Furthermore, the proposed cooling towers for the electrical generator would use marine waters via an industrial intake mechanism that is responsible for killing millions of fish and marine mammals per year in similar facilities worldwide.
Dave Rastovich, co-founder of Surfers for Cetaceans and professional free surfer, spoke out in opposition to the project while he was surfing in the region in late June: “I was surfing an epic beach break in front of the proposed site for the coal plant, and it’s full of marine life. In my travels throughout all of Chile I’ve seen very few dolphins, but at this spot I surfed with numerous dolphins as well as seals, penguins, birds, and fish. The company’s environmental report claims that there is no marine life in the region that will be adversely affected by their coal plant, but that’s a false claim that ignores the problem.
