Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 10
September 19, 2003

CONTENT:

1. NEIGHBOURS OF CONSTITUCIÓN ASK FOR CLEAN-UP
   OF POLLUTED TERRITORY
   
   
2. JUSTICE DECIDED TO PROTECT LLANCANELO'S LAGOON

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NEIGHBOURS OF CONSTITUCION ASK FOR CLEAN-UP
OF A POLLUTED TERRITORY
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A group of neighbours from Constitución, with the sponsorship of the lawyers from FARN's Citizen Control Program on Environment, presented an injunctive relief in order to warn the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and the Argentinean Federal Police to carry out the clean-up, disinfection and environmental recomposing of a territory at the street Cochabamba 1733/71 in this City, which is used as cars' deposit.

It is important to outline that the deficient use Federal Police gave to the territory, turned that place into a rubbish dump, where we can find abandoned cars, great amount of hazardous and resident wastes, as well as dogs, cats, rats and insects, that create a serious danger for health, quality of life and public security of the neighbours in Constitución and of the relegated area in the South of the City of Buenos Aires.

Likewise, and as the different departments of the GCBA with competence in the subject, expressed that if the clean-up is not carried out, the said deposit may become a focal point of transmission of diseases such as dengue and leptospirosis, it was asked an urgent precautionary measure to order the GCBA the immediate anti-insect campaign and anti-rat campaign of the territory.

In their presentation, the neighbours want the competent authorities to carry out the necessary tasks in order to start with the environmental recomposing of the territory, according to the established by the Sections 41º of the National Constitution, 28º of the CCABA, and 28º of the Law 25.675, so the territory can be arranged to be used as a cultural, social, sports and recreational place, as it is disposed by the Code of the Urban Planning.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Injunctive relief:
   http://www.farn.org.ar/arch/amp_predio.pdf

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JUSTICE DECIDED TO PROTECT LLANCANELO'S LAGOON
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Civil Court Nº 15 of the Province of Mendoza determined that it was unconstitutional the decree 190/2003 of the Environment and Public Works Department that approved the Environmental Impact Declaration (EIA) , which authorized REPSOL-YPF to extract oil in the area of the Llancanelo's Lagoon, in Malargüe.

After an injunctive relief presented by Oikos Environmental Network of the Province of Mendoza, which forms part of the Steering Committee of FARN's Citizen Control Program on Environment, the judge María Mercedes Herrera considered that the said decree infringed Section 41 of the National Constitution, and that: "The rule that allows oil exploitation proposed by Repsol - YPF SA, must have its origin in the delimitation of the protected Natural Area in order to put into effect the prescriptions of the Provincial Law 6,045 (that forbids oil activity in the protected areas). And in the case the oil exploitation is carried out in territories that do not form part of the legal prohibition of hidrocarbons exploitation, it must be completed the approbation procedure of the Environmental Impact Declaration in a resolution of a preventive action for future harms".

In view of the company and Government's argument regarding that the injunctive relief was presented out of the time accorded by Law 16,986, the judge considered that the "high value of the goods that come into play (economic and environmental ones)" and "the legally protected interest the plaintiff is trying do defend, and that is recognized and protected by international treaties and by our Constitution (...) justifies the formal obstacles to be put aside in order to lead to the jurisdictional protection; this argument is enough to reject the extemporal aspiration of the defendants".

This is a relevant judgment, and a great number of environmental organizations in Mendoza, have declared that the Environmental Impact Declaration (EID) that authorized oil exploitation in the area, did not fulfill with the necessary precautions in order to guarantee the integral protection of the Llancanello's Lagoon that is considered one of the most important wetlands in the world.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

   Judgment:
   http://www.farn.org.ar/arch/fallo_llancanelo.pdf