[Aztlan] Costa Rican Archaeology to be Lost?

[Hoopes, John W]

As with the proposed dams on the Usumacinta River, damming of the Térraba-Coto Brús River in southeastern Costa Rica has been an on-again-off-again project since the mid-1970s.  In fact, it was the Proyecto Boruca (as it was initially called) that provided the incentive for a valley wide site survey undertaken by Robert Drolet and several Costa Rican archaeologists under the auspices of the National Museum of Costa Rica beginning in 1980.  Drolet's work provided a context for subsequent research by Francisco Corrales, Ifigenia Quintanilla, Jeffrey Quilter, Adrian Badilla, myself, and others.
 
Yes, any flooding of the Térraba-Coto Brús will result in the destruction of countless archaeological sites.  There is also deep concern that the Proyecto Hidroeléctrico Diquís will have a deleterious impact on indigenous communities in the region:
 
http://www.comitespatrioticos.com/index.php/sociedad/65-sociedad/620-organizaciones-indigenas-de-terraba-rechazan-proyecto-hidroelectrico-diquis <http://www.interconnection.org/ietsay/borucaproject_en.html> 
 
However, hydroelectric dams are also a relatively "green" source of energy that do not contribute the atmosphere's carbon load.  Costa Rica recently became the first country to pledge to be "carbon neutral" in the near future:
 
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07289157.htm
 
It's a complex issue, but one in which there needs to be a great deal of sensitivity to the concerns of both indigenous and archaeological communities.
 
John Hoopes