Water protection and development in debate in southern Brazil: the environmental conflict involving the Triunfo Petrochemical Complex (1975-1982)

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Elenita Malta
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Ribeiro, Claudia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Ibero-Americanos
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/35616
• topic: Rio Grande do Sul waters; Industrial development; Petrochemistry; Environmental struggles; Civil-Military dictatorship; Environmental history; Aguas en Rio Grande do Sul; Desarrollo industrial; Petroquímica; Luchas ambientales; Dictadura Civil-Militar; Historia Ambiental; Águas no Rio Grande do Sul; Desenvolvimento industrial; Petroquímica; Lutas ambientais; Ditadura Civil-Militar; História Ambiental

During the transition from the 1970s to 1980s, a period marked by the resurgence of collective movements in Brazil, the populations of several municipalities located on the banks of the Guaíba-Patos lagoon system found ways to express and assert their concerns regarding the potential pollution produced by a large industrial complex, through activities held right from the first public announcements of its construction. This article is made possible due to more comprehensive interdisciplinary research, which recounts the first phase of the environmental history of this development in Rio Grande do Sul, through interviews, consultation of public and private archives and field work: the 3rd Petrochemical Pole. The major features of the heated public debate the project generated are outlined within the scope of the II National Development Plan (in force during the civil-military dictatorship, and seeks to better understand the debate and clash of ideas manifested during this project, the forerunner of a complex of chemical plants that have now been in operation since 1982 in the cities of Triunfo and Montenegro. It is argued that at a time when environmental standards were scarce throughout the world, the actions and discourse of environmentalists, politicians, technicians, and the population in general were able to push for rigorous protection of the water needed to, among other uses, supply the population of Porto Alegre. These struggles led to the establishment of pragmatic milestones in national environmental protection measures: the pioneering environmental impact study and the resulting method for treating liquid effluents from the Pole.