ARGENTINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sebastián P. Vedoya, Sergio Arbeleche and Dolores Cattaneo, Bruchou & Funes de Rioja
the enactment of the Glacier Protection Law) is forbidden. Projects and activities existing prior to the enactment of the Glacier Protection Law need to undergo a new environmental audit (re- evaluation) to confirm that they do not signifi - cantly affect those protected geoforms. A Gla - cier Inventory was completed and published in 2018. Environmental Provincial Regulations Affecting Mining Development in Certain Provinces Some provinces (considered to be anti-mining) have issued local environmental legislation for - bidding certain mining methodologies (such as open-pit) and the use of certain hazardous sub - stances for mining processes (such as mercury or cyanide). For that reason, it is very important to review the local environmental standards in each province before deciding on the acquisition and/or development of any mining activity. Environmental Competent Authorities National Congress sometimes enacts legislation related to aspects that are not vested upon the federal government nor delegated by provinces and are therefore not applicable in the province unless the province adheres thereto. Such leg - islation generally contains an express invitation for provincial governments to adhere thereto (adhesion is not mandatory for provinces). In those cases, the competent authority in charge of applying such regulations is the Provincial Authority, which can also enact its own supple - mentary rules. The National Hazardous Waste Law is an example of both, since it applies to interprovincial activities but also contains an invitation for provinces to adhere thereto. An important source of environmental legisla - tion, as explained further below, is the local or provincial environmental regulations, issued in
exercise of non-delegated powers, or for sup - plementing the Minimum Environmental Stand - ards Legislation, the FMC and/or other federal legislation applicable in the respective province (eg, federal legislation to which the province has adhered). Furthermore, in some cases, and based on the Provincial Constitution, municipalities are empowered to issue certain types of environ - mental regulations or even participate in the provincial environmental impact assessment process. Provincial authorities Through interprovincial bodies or councils, provinces may agree on certain standardised environmental principles that are applicable in all provinces that adhere to these sorts of inter - provincial environmental agreements. An example of this is the COFEMIN Supplemen - tary Regulation (Bariloche 1996), which consists of a regulation that further regulates the envi - ronmental chapter included in the FMC and was adopted as a supplementary regulation by different provinces. Such regulations contain a description of the content that a mining Envi - ronmental Impact Report (EIR) for the prospec - tion, exploration and exploitation stages should include. The treatment, decision and control of environ - mental matters in each provincial jurisdiction are the jurisdiction of local/provincial authorities, without any participation from national authori - ties. The only exceptions to this rule are inter - jurisdictional or cross-border issues, and regula - tions arising from treaties. Accordingly, the rule is that provincial authorities are the competent authorities for enforcing envi -
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