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On November 11th, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández vetoed a previously passed bill aimed at protecting Argentina’s glaciers.

The bill, entitled The Law of Minimum Budgets for the Protection of Glaciers and Periglacial Environment, had been passed overwhelmingly despite concerns from governors of affected provinces and Argentina’s Secretariat of Mines that the bill’s provisions would prevent mining development.

The glacier protection bill would have:

Established basic standards to preserve glaciers as strategic reserves of hydric resources and water supplies; and Prohibited activities that would prevent the glaciers from acting as water supplies.

Some of the activities that would have been severely curtailed in glacial environments would have been mining (including gold, copper, aluminum, iron and steel, and others), oil and gas exploration and exploitation, general construction activities, and the release of any substances that would have a detrimental effect on glaciers.

Environmental groups had applauded the passage of this bill; according to Daniel Filmus, president of the Commission of Environment and Sustainable Development:

There is no question that the protection and value of glaciers, as ecosystems that are a fundamental part of the natural environment of our country and represent one of the most important freshwater reserves for the Patagonian region, [and] should be recognized and promoted by a national law.

However, President Fernández was concerned that “the prohibition is excessive” and gives “preeminence to environmental aspects over activities that could be developed in perfect care of the environment.” Specifically, there was governmental concern that the bill “would have negative repercussions in the economic development and investment”.

One mining project, Canadian gold mining company Barrick Gold’s $2.4 billion Pascua Lama project would have been affected by the implementation of this law. While Barrick had publicly stated that there would be extensive environmental and glacial protections implemented, there was still extensive controversy surrounding the project.

Pascua Lama critics contend that the bill was vetoed to prevent it from delaying or cancelling Barrick’s mega-project.

Image: glacier, lake and earth via Flickr under a Creative Commons License