Lower Congress Approves Glacier Protection Law

After 12 hours of debate, Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies approved a law that would limit mining and oil drilling activity in the country’s Andean ice fields on Thursday morning. The legislation’s provisions are similar to a glacier protection law that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner controversially vetoed in 2008.

While the Chamber of Deputies still has to debate and vote on specific details of the bill, the law is expected to move to the Senate for a final vote in August. Though the Senate vote will be close, Kirchner said she will approve whatever final version of the bill is passed.

Approved 129-86, the law declares all of Argentina’s glaciers to be “strategic reserves of water resources” and “public property”.

It bans “mining and oil extraction” in the glaciers’ watersheds, and places strict restrictions on industrial activity in surrounding lands, expanding the definition of a peri-glacial area. It also establishes a system to assess the environmental impact of commercial projects and outlines specific penalties for polluters.

“The bill protects glaciers and peri-glacial areas from any industry be it mining or fuels, or others that could affect the strategic drinking water resource,” said Alejandro De Miranda, a spokesman for opposition Deputy Miguel Bonasso, who led the bill.

Glacial watersheds provide Argentina with 70% of its “safe” drinking water. Industrial contamination and glacial retreat led the government to to announce “water” as one of the country’s five most pressing environmental issues in 2009, along with climate change, waste, deforestation, and conservation of protected areas.

During the debate, Bonasso strongly criticised the practices of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold, which he said uses toxic chemicals like cyanide and has dubious connections with the San Juan province government.

“We don’t want the endangered Andes mountains to be dedicated to gold mining with cyanide…for the benefit of a few people’s pockets,” Bonasso said. “We want there to be water for all Argentines.”

This version of the bill was a recent combination of conflicting proposals by Bonasso and the pro-Kirchner senator Daniel Filmus.

Bonasso had actually led the pro-Kirchner faction until the president vetoed the 2008 version of the law, causing him to defect in protest. While Kirchner cited the legislation’s potentially deleterious effects on economic activity in the effected regions at the time, environmental activists charged the president with being in the pocket of Barrick Gold.