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Damming the Usumacinta: the Archaeological Impact

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Damming the Usumacinta: the Archaeological Impact Damming the Usumacinta: The Archaeological Impact S. JEFFREY K. WILKERSON INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL ECOLOGY OF THE TROPICS n 1983, I addressed the Fifth Mesa Redonda con- larly on the Tabasco Plain, and the exploitation of the cerning the alarming news of a massive dam project resources of the isolated region upstream from the San Ito be undertaken on the Usumacinta River. Since lose Canvon increased. It soon became necessarv to de- the meeting, much has transpired and many more details fine the extremely vague border between ~uatekalaand of this immense hydroelectric project have been con- Mexico. After much dispute, the present river boundary firmed.' As a result we can now more accurately exam- following first the Usumacinta proper, and then its main ine the major factors that have an impact upon the tributary, the Chixoy or Salinas, was ratified at the very ample archaeological patrimony of the region. end of the century.4 This brief presentation concentrates upon six aspects: During this same period, archaeological discoveries (1) a general background of the threatened region; (2) were constant and many of the major Maya cities we are the basic facts about the proposed dams; (3) a prelimi- aware of today were recorded. The more accessible river- nary appraisal of the archaeological risk; (4) the current bank sites such as Yaxchiliin and Piedras Negras attracted status of the dams; (5) a review of the archaeological in- particular attention (Charnay 1885; Maudslay 1889; put into the decision-making process; and (6) some sug- Maler 1901). gestions of what we, as concerned scientists and indi- The first half of the twentieth centurv was a time of viduals, can do about this situation. increasing lumber exploitation and slow reduction of the rain forest. Although much of this vast rain forest per- Profile of a Declining Wilderness sisted into the twentieth century, it is now severely threatened. On the Mexican bank the Lacandon Forest The Usumacinta River drains a 106,000 km2 area of was estimated to have covered 1.3 million hectares in northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. This 1875. By 1960, it had been reduced by only 6 percent. large region represents 42 percent of Guatemala and Yet by 1982, just one year before the last Mesa Redonda, major portions of the Mexican states of Chiapas, Ta- it had suffered a 42 percent reduction! It is conservatively basco, and Campeche. Following the demise of the Clas- estimated that by 1990 nearly 70 percent of the forest sic Period Maya cities, most of the broad Lowland region will have been lea red.^ slowly became a true wilderness. By the time Herngn Population in the region has also risen from an esti- Cortes struggled across it in 1525, this great belt of rain mated 12,000 in 1965 to over 200,000 today. At this forest was an established area of refuge for fleeing Maya writing the Mexican government continues an active group^.^ Although towns and villages were few, Indian policy of forming new ejidos in the forested area. In merchants found the shorter routes through the forest short, the rate of environmental alteration has greatly convenient until colonial rule and drastic population de- accelerated, particularly in the period from 1970 to the cline ended such commerce. present. Throughout the colonial period, the Usumacinta re- Other resources have also been exploited. During this gion became a still greater void. Although a few towns, same period highly organized looting of archaeological such as Palenque, were founded on its margins, and sites, especially in Guatemala's El Peten, reached incred- Spanish entradas encroached upon it, the European im- ible proportions. It has abated somewhat due to more pact was minimal. This situation was to change rapidly effective government enforcement as well as the guer- with independence in the nineteenth century and the rilla presence in more extensive portions of the rain availability of new technologies, as well as markets, for forest. lumber exploitation and agricultural endeavors. As the region has been opened up to settlement and Throughout that century, population grew, particu- mechanized lumbering, there have also been extensive studies of petroleum and hydroelectric power potential. sideration by the Mexican delegation in the winter of This has led directly to exploratory drilling in the previ- 1984- 1985. Its status is still pending. ously isolated Marques de Comillas Zone and the for- As a result of the field inspection, the proposal came mulation of a large-scale dam project. to be defined in terms of the construction of two to four dams that would produce between 2 and 3.7 megawatts of electricity. The inundated areas would vary according The Dams to which of the seven different dam configurations were selected. However, if the highest level studied is chosen, The origin of the dam projects on the Usumacinta goes in excess of 1,315 km2 will be fl~oded.~Potentially, a back thirty years or more to the first efforts to estimate staggering 525-km segment of the Usumacinta River sys- the hydroelectric potential of this vast regions6As roads tem would be directly affected by water backed up by and the Ferrocarril del Sureste made the area around these dams. Tenosiaue more accessible, attention focused on Boca Although relative proportions change with the vari- del Cerro, the point where the Usumacinta breaks free ous possible dam combinations, at basin levels now of the Sierra de Chiapas. In fact, plans for this original being considered, 67 percent of the flooding would be in site have been dusted off and incorporated into the new Guatemala and 33 percent in Mexico. These dispropor- multidam project (fig. 1). tionate figures reflect the topography of the region, for Although the Usumacinta is an international border, the Lacandon Forest is generally higher than the low the early proposals and concepts were essentially Mexi- areas west of Guatemala's Sierra del Lacandon. can. Alarm in Guatemala over the possible unilateral The electricity to be generated greatly exceeds Guate- construction of this and other dams, with the inevitable mala's current needs and is far from major urban centers. flooding of the lower Guatemalan bank, led to preven- Excess electricity is likely to be sold to Mexico or Cen- tative action. In the mid-sixties cooperative villages tral American countries. were established on both the Rio de la Pasion and the Usumacinta proper. The presence of the settlements in Archaeological Risk the threatened areas was thought to be a significant deterrent. In point of fact they, as well as deteriorating Of critical importance for assessing the archaeological bilateral relations, were sufficient to halt further devel- impact of this project are the heights of the dams. Virtu- opment of the proposal. Mexico instead undertook ma- allv all the dam combinations threaten known archaeo- jor dams (La Angostadura, Chicoasen, Nezahualc6yotl- logical sites, but some more than others. Current studies Malpaso) on the neighboring Grijalva system and did concentrate upon the highest dam holding back water at not return to the Usumacinta concept until the late the 105- or 120-m contour line. Both these levels have 1970s.' severe implications for major sites. Currently, the higher At that time both countries agreed to full-scale feasi- of the two levels is favored by the participating engineers bility studies of the Usumacinta in preparation for a since more electricity can be produced at a cheaper per joint project of massive proportions. The studies were to unit cost (fie..- 3)., lo be carried out under the auspices of the already existing A second factor in any calculation is the role of the and jointly constituted International Limits and Water seasonal and cyclical flooding of the Lacantun, Chixoy, Commission (CILA). This organization is considered a and Pasion tributaries of the Usumacinta. Not onlv do part of the ~orei~nRelations ministries of each country. they rise dramatically during each rainy season, but Representatives of the various government agencies there is apparently a multiyear cycle. The highest recent concerned with the dam uroiect-, formed a committee, flood of the Pasion, without any dams to hold water headed by the CILA commissioner in their country. back, reached the 117-111 contour level at Savaxche. These committees directed surveying and field analysis What would happen if a similar, or greater, volume of and met periodically with their counterparts. water descended upon the dam basins has yet to be fully Eleven different segments of the river between Boca calculated. Unauestionablv.,, there would be still more del Cerro and El Chorro were analyzed for dam construc- damage to archaeological sites. tion potential.' Twenty-six locations within these seg- A third factor in any archaeological consideration is ments were measured for dams. Five segments and the problem of locating affected sites. There are numer- fourteen dam locations were rejected. The remaining ous small and medium-sized centers within short dis- possibilities were grouped into seven dam configurations tances from the river and adjoining low-lying areas. at five points on the river: Boca del Cerro, La Linea, El Many, in spite of much systematic looting in recent ~orvenir(next to Piedras Negras), ~alvamento(just years, have never been surveyed or mapped." Basically, downstream from Yaxchilan), and San Fernando (near we do not really know at this time how many sites lie the once famous lumber center of Agua Azul or "Fila- within the potentially affected area. In spite of decreas- delfia"; fig. 2, 3, 4). ing isolation the region, particularly the threatened The bend in the river at Yaxchilgn had been ruled out Guatemalan side of the river, is still an archaeological as a dam location by late 1982 but was revived for con- frontier.
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