ENVIRONMENT-PERU: New Machinery For Natural Gas Wells Disturb Forests

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

CASHIRIARI, PERU, Jan 30 1997 (IPS) - The Urabamba river which flows through the dense highland forests on the eastern flank of the central Peruvian Andes near this village has a new inhabitant, the Manta, that is bigger than any other creature in the river.

The Manta, which moved here from Angola in southern Africa, roars up and down the river every other day, hovering a few centimetres above the water as it ferries cargo for its owners — the Anglo-Dutch multinational Shell.

The company has designed a 1997 calendar to explain to the initially frightened, but now curious, local Machiguenga peoples, the workings of the Manta, which is in fact a hovercraft. Its cargo is for a massive, natural gas extraction operation set to begin later this year.

The Manta is not the only regular new visitor to the area. Large, black ex-army Chinook helicopters and Soviet-designed Antonov aircraft as well as smaller cousins of the aircraft family have begun to make several trips daily into the region.

The main destination is Nuevo Mundo, a small riverside Machiguenga village, where some 300 contract workers for Shell are putting the finishing touches on a new airport and a command centre for all their work in the region.

From this base, helicopters, motor boats, and the Manta, make their way upstream to two initial natural gas-well sites, soon to be expanded to four, which are scattered through the forests near this village.

At these sites, deep inside the forests, giant yellow earth movers have begun to excavate hillsides. Eventually the company wants to build a pipeline through the forests and over the Andes to Lima some 500 kms to the east, and perhaps another pipeline towards the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco where the Urabamba River begins its journey.

From the Cuzco region, the river tumbles several thousand metres down the Andes to the lowland Amazon where, a mere 100 kms away from this village, scientists recently recorded the highest number of animal, bird, insect, and plant populations found anywhere on the planet.

In light of this discovery, Shell officials take great pains to explain that the company will do its best to ensure that the equipment will have minimal impact on the local forests and rivers.

The company has also hired the Smithsonian Institute in Washington to establish test plots to map local plants, mammals, insects, and aquatic systems.

To avoid any possible charges of environmental damage, Shell has vowed to refrain from constructing roads, to remove all trash from the region, and to forbid hunting and fishing by its staff.

The company is especially sensitive because of international criticism in the last two years, including objections to the massive environmental destruction of the Niger delta in western Africa caused by its oil operations.

Some charges of environmental damage have, however, begun to come in, even though the company has only worked in this area for four months and no natural gas has yet been pumped out of the ground.

The people of this village have been the first to complain.

One villager, Pilar Vargas, says that the waters of the Cashiriari river, which are normally chocolate-brown, sometimes turn black.

“We also have trouble hunting and fishing,” she told IPS. “It took us just two hours to hunt for animals before the operations began. Now, it takes a day and a half.”

One possible explanation, suggested by an environmentalist visiting the area, is the fact that Shell has no erosion controls on its operations which are situated in the headwaters of the Cashiriari river.

But Shell’s technical manager Tom Kelly defends the work on the site. “We have only been moving earth for a couple of weeks. We have plans to protect the site from erosion,” he says.

Shell environmental chief Murray Jones and terrestrial ecologist Miguel Ruiz-Larrea say that population pressure is another possible explanation.

“We have studies going back to the 1970s which document complaints about fishing and hunting declines,” says Ruiz-Larrea. “I don’t want to say that our helicopters and cutting operations are not having an impact, because it is clear they do have some impact. But I think there are a number of other factors involved.”

The company says it will begin to plant the native cetico tree on the land it no longer needs, although local people say they would prefer a mixture of local species.

“We would like to plant other trees, but we don’t have seeds for other local trees like sapote and shimbillo,” counters Ruiz- Larrea. “In any case, cetico is what grows naturally and quickly in cleared areas here.”

Yet environmentalists know that problems like land erosion and deforestation are minor compared to what will come when Shell begins the actual extraction of natural gas. The company will simply extract test quantities of gas over the next two years, but by the end of the century, Shell hopes to begin full-scale operations.

Waste material from the wells could contain heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, which are highly toxic. It could also contain toxic by-products, including poly-aromatic hydrocarbons which are believed to cause cancer in extremely high concentrations.

Natural gas escaping from the well may have to be burnt off, causing massive flares in the forest, while pressurised gas pipelines run the risk of explosions — common occurrences even in countries like the United States where the industry uses the best available technology.

Jones assures IPS that the company will take all possible precautions to prevent problems. He says that initially, all wastes will be treated. Eventually, the company plans to reinject wastes deep below the water table to prevent contamination of the local environment.

Shell, however, admits that while these plans look perfect on paper, it is possible that the actual practices may be different. The company says it is willing to accept monitoring by a third party.

“We need criticism from the outside,” Alan Hunt, the chief executive of Shell in Peru, told IPS. “Otherwise our plans become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

ENVIRONMENT-PERU: New Machinery For Natural Gas Wells Disturb Forests

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

CASHIRIARI, PERU, Jan 30 1997 (IPS) - The Urabamba river which flows through the dense highland forests on the eastern flank of the central Peruvian Andes near this village has a new inhabitant, the Manta, that is bigger than any other creature in the river.
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