MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Green light for Botnia pulp mill; Argentina furious

In spite of Botnia the friendly hug for the official picture

Uruguay finally granted the long-awaited start-up permit for Finland's Botnia pulp mill, which Argentina argues will contaminate a shared river. The green light came late Thursday following a last ditch effort to resolve the several years-long diplomatic dispute between the neighboring countries during the Ibero American summit in Santiago, Chile.

Montevideo's move to authorize the plant angered Argentine officials, particularly because it came unexpectedly, just after Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez gave a conciliatory speech in Santiago's Ibero-American summit and hugged Argentina's Nestor Kirchner and the elected Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. "This seems to me to have been insincere and unfortunate behavior" said Argentine Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez Friday morning. "There is no way to explain how the Uruguayan president could have done such a thing (as approving the permit) after giving that speech and going over to President Kirchner to embrace him" Fernandez said, describing this as cynical. Uruguayan media said Vazquez decided to order the mill permit after Kirchner greeted environmental protesters on the streets of Chile on Thursday, saying he supported their cause. Vazquez was also quoted by the Argentine press stating "I do not need to take advice from anyone or seek permission" before granting Botnia the start-up permit. "We are preparing for operations to begin. We have to generate energy and warm up the system, boilers are on" Botnia spokesperson Florencia Herrera, told a local radio on Friday. "We don't have a precise date but we believe the mill will start producing pulp in about a week or maybe a little longer". The plant already had a two months stock of logs waiting for the green light. The long protracted dispute begun to pick up almost two years ago when Argentina took the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague on charges that Montevideo ignored a 1975 joint management treaty of the Uruguay River. The Botnia plant along the river is one of the largest private investments in Uruguay's history, 1.2 billion US dollars and is expected to produce a million tons of pulp annually. Argentine environmentalists, originally promoted by local and federal authorities, over the last two and a half years have staged protests against Botnia blocking access to bridges linking with Uruguay claiming the plant will pollute the waters and harm the region's pristine wildlife. Uruguay and Botnia insist any pollution from the state of the art plant will be below internationally accepted levels. Uruguay is also demanding compensation for the losses caused to trade and tourism by pickets. The King of Spain had appointed a top diplomat to mediate in the dispute between Uruguay and Argentina, but the talks ultimately proved fruitless. The mill had originally been scheduled to start making pulp in late September.