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Judge suspends Amazon dam project due to legal questions mongabay.com April 30, 2008
In the decision, issued April 16 in response to a suit brought by the federal attorney's office, Judge Antonio Carlos Almeida Campelo ruled that the government illegally awarded technical and economic feasibility and environmental studies for Belo Monte Dam to Brazil's three largest civil construction companies. There was no competitive bidding process for the contract.
The planned dam for the Madeira river has also seen widespread opposition. The 6,450-megawatt project, expected to be operational in 2012, will flood 204 square miles of rainforest. Researchers say the dams will release greenhouse gases from rotting vegetation and block important route for migratory fish, including some of the river's largest catfish species. Environmentalists have warned that the project could bring soybean farmers, illegal gold miners and loggers to remote parts of the Amazon rainforest, increasing pressure on the biodiverse ecosystem. The Brazilian government says the dams planned for the Xingu, Madeira, Tapajós, Tocantins, and other major tributaries of the Amazon, would provide most of Brazil's electrical generating capacity over the coming decades. Much of the electricity would go towards energy-intensive mining, metal processing, and industrial farms in the Eastern Amazon. International Rivers argues the more than 60 large dams planned for the Amazon in coming decades would "cause irreversible impacts to the rainforest, its wildlife, and local populations."
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