Two decades ago, the installation of a plant to produce cellulosic pulp off Gualeguaychú became a problem that led to two sister countries facing off at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The origin was that people on one side of the river found that the system only benefited the other bank and instead all the damage was caused to their own bank.
It is true that the worst prophecies of those who promoted what to this day many refer to as “the achievement of Gualeguaychú” were not fulfilled: it was not confirmed that “Botnia kills” (as can still be read today at the access junction to the city of Entre Ríos, although the company is now called UPM Fray Bentos), no babies were born with deformities due to the facility, the river did not appear to be more polluted than it already was was noted in previous reports, and the properties were not worth tenths, nor did tourism disappear. But would all of this have happened if more plants had reproduced, as originally hoped on the other side?
There’s no way to know. History went the other way and today UPM operates without anyone being too interested. For some, the only positive outcome of the conflict was the increase in environmental awareness in the region. Others bitterly point out that this new consciousness has not stopped Gualeguaychú from voting en masse for a president who has abjured environmental protection (and who even proposed privatizing the rivers so that, since they are a business, they would no longer be “worth zero” and then “the pollution would stop”).
Authoritarians don’t like that
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a mainstay of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe that they are the owners of the truth.
These days, the binational region of the Uruguay River is once again presenting a challenge. The eastern approval for the installation of a “green” hydrogen production plant (or synthetic fuels, depending on who describes it) is already showing differences between socio-ecological groups on both banks, as well as authorities on both banks. The controversy fuels the question: What have we learned from the conflict over Botnia?
The plant. HIF Global (Highly Innovative Fuels Global) is a company with majority Chilean capital, American and German participation and a growing inflow of Japanese capital. The company was founded in 2016 and has its legal headquarters in Houston, Texas. However, it also operates in Chile, the United States, Australia and Europe.
It is dedicated to the production of “e-fuels” or synthetic fuels using hydrogen produced using renewable energy. According to their own narrative, these are “highly innovative” fuels that enable progress in global decarbonization.
Hence the “green” thing: they allow us to reduce our current reliance on fossil fuels, and they are supposedly made with a much lower environmental impact. For example, a solar farm and a wind farm are to be built in Paysandú to produce the energy that the power plant will consume.
Bindings and cracks. Despite the wounds left by the anti-pastry movement, the ties between the two sides are still stronger than the cracks. For example, the mayor of Paysandú, Nicolás Olivera – an enthusiastic supporter of the project – was born in Colón. The vice mayor of the Entre Ríos city of Concepción del Uruguay, Rossana Sosa Zitto, comes from Sanducera. There are almost no families who don’t have relatives or friends on the other side of the river.
Maybe that’s why there’s growing concern: Aren’t arguments between siblings usually the most dramatic?
The thing is that it is precisely there, next to the location of the power plant, that the Tierra de Palmares microregion is being developed (which includes Colón, San José, Villa Elisa, Ubajay, San Salvador, Liebig, General Campos and El Palmar National Park). In fact, it is one of the province’s top tourist destinations.
For this reason, the mayor of Colón, José Luis Walser, an industrial engineer who came to the municipality with a neighborhood proposal, is at the forefront of the lawsuit. Walser received support from Governor Rogelio Frigerio to ask his counterparts in the East to relocate the plant. He also called, with the unanimous support of his Advisory Council, for Javier Milei’s government to intervene through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So far in vain.
On the other hand, the risks are minimized: the mayor of Paysandú said that the investment (estimated at between 4 and 6 billion dollars) “will not bring any benefit, no matter how large, if it is not accompanied by the protection of the environment.” He added that the company would be “delegitimized” if it created “changes or impacts” in order to sell the product. “The main players are the companies themselves, which need certifications in order not to be banned from the markets that demand this product,” he argued.
Olivera added that the Uruguayan state “will not condescend to anyone, no matter how big the investment,” he noted. “It is not a pasture, it is a green hydrogen plant. Uruguay must produce clean energy and attract investment. We will show that this is possible with respect for the environment.”
The risks. HIF Global has already received Environmental Location Validation (VAL), the Uruguayan requirement to advance in the administrative process. On the basis of this authorization, the multinational company must submit technical studies and assessments of the environmental and social impacts, as well as any relationships that it could generate with the environment, as well as the positive impacts such as risks to the environment, the territory and the surrounding communities.
The concern in the Entre Ríos region is anchored in several aspects, as Serratti and Báez explain: The type of production of the plant is based on two basic inputs: hydrogen (which would be obtained through electrolysis of water from the Uruguay River) and carbon dioxide (which is 95 percent produced by the combustion of forestry and agricultural waste). Methanol is produced from these inputs.
In addition to the fact that there is never zero risk in these types of problems (something that has been studied and debated since the publication of the groundbreaking book Postnormal Science by Argentinian Ignacio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz thirty years ago), the region’s climate gives rise to a worrying factor: the winds, which come predominantly from the east for much of the year. An accident, an unforeseen failure would have consequences for the population on the Argentinean outskirts. About sixty thousand people within a radius of 10-12 kilometers, and during the tourist season it is difficult to calculate it when it multiplies several times.
These factors place the region in a situation of vulnerability and risk, “given the impossibility of predicting with certainty the scale of a possible incident, the lack of early warning systems and the absence of effective protection mechanisms.” And they add that the project has been changed: in July this year, the company estimated the expected increase in production no longer at 560,000 tons of methanol per year, but at 876,000 tons per year.
One aspect that is sometimes trivialized is the landscape. The company presents a mitigation plan for making the chimneys (which will be up to 80 meters high) visible, but it is clear to anyone living in the area that such chimneys cannot be hidden. The defense tower of the city of Paysandú, the most imposing building in this city, has a height of 106 meters and is clearly visible from the coastal towns of Entre Ríos.
* Doctor of Philosophy (Unsam). Journalist. Member of the El Miércoles cooperative in Entre Ríos.
Where the factory would be installed in Paysandú
AS
Environmental organizations say the issue is not so green. Evangelina Báez and Carlos Serratti are part of the multi-sectoral Somos Ambiente and reject several aspects. “It’s semantic nonsense,” they say. Carlos is an industrial technician and teacher. Evangelina is a teacher and technician for cultural management and mediation. Both are neighbors of Colón.
“Without going into technical details – which have also not been reported – one cannot speak of zero risk in plants of this size. Much less in a plant that is expected to produce 876,000 tons of methanol per year,” they explain. Methanol is toxic, flammable, explosive and evaporates at temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius.
The rural area where the plant would be located is Constancia, with fewer than a thousand inhabitants, about 18 kilometers south of Paysandú. And just 3.8 kilometers from the coast of Entre Ríos, in front of Colón, barely separated by the waters of the “blue sky that travels”, the Uruguay River, which Aníbal Sampayo sang about. The crucial fact is the distance as the crow flies: about 4.75 kilometers from the commercial, historical and demographic center of Colón, versus 15 kilometers from the center of Paysandú.
If the activities carried out actually pose risks, they will affect the coastal region of Entre Ríos as much (or more) than the eastern one. And hence the root of the new conflict.
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