## Facts

- Corporación del Cobre–Division Salvador (Codelco) discharged copper tailings containing toxic substances into the Salado River.
- Codelco altered the Salado River so that it drained into a national park and ultimately into the ocean.
- The tailings were alleged to have caused a variety of ecological injuries along the coast.
- Pedro Flores San Martín filed suit against Codelco invoking the Chilean constitutional right to live in an environment free from pollution.
- Flores requested that the court order Codelco to stop the pollution and to pay damages.
- Flores also claimed Codelco’s activities were illegal under existing regulations prohibiting the dumping of unpurified tailings into the ocean, rivers, and lakes.
- A separate appeal by residents of Chañaral seeking the same considerations was joined with Flores’s claim.
- Codelco argued it acted under authority of a government decree allowing the company to dump polluted water in a specified part of the Salado River.

## Issues

1. Whether Codelco’s discharge of toxic copper tailings into the Salado River—after alteration of the river’s drainage toward a national park and the ocean—violated the constitutional right to live in an environment free from pollution.
2. Whether regulations prohibiting dumping of unpurified tailings into the ocean, rivers, and lakes rendered Codelco’s discharges unlawful.
3. Whether a government decree authorizing dumping of polluted water in a specific part of the Salado River provided a legal justification or defense to the constitutional and regulatory claims.
4. What relief could be ordered against Codelco for the alleged ongoing contamination, including an order to stop discharges and an award of damages.

## Decision

- The case was decided by the Copiapó Court of Appeals under Rol. 2.052 (1988).
- Publicly accessible materials describing the case provide the parties’ claims and defenses but do not provide the court’s full reasoning, the precise holding, or the specific disposition on requested cessation and damages.

## Legal Principles

- Chile’s constitutional right to live in an environment free from pollution may be invoked to challenge alleged contamination from industrial activity.
- Regulatory prohibitions on dumping unpurified mining tailings into water bodies can serve as a basis for alleging illegality of tailings discharges.
- A claimed executive authorization (such as a decree permitting discharges in a defined location) may be contested where plaintiffs allege conflict with constitutional protections and generally applicable prohibitions.
- Environmental litigation may seek both forward-looking relief (to stop pollution) and monetary relief (damages), depending on the procedural vehicle and proof of harm.

## Conclusion

*Pedro Flores v. Corporación del Cobre–Division Salvador, Rol. 2.052 (1988)* arose from allegations that Codelco discharged toxic copper tailings into the Salado River, after altering the river so it drained into a national park and ultimately the ocean, causing coastal ecological harm; Flores and joined Chañaral residents invoked Chile’s constitutional right to an environment free from pollution, alleged violations of regulations barring unpurified tailings dumping, and sought an order to stop the pollution and recover damages, while Codelco relied on a government decree authorizing dumping in a specific part of the river, with the publicly available case description not supplying the court’s detailed holding or remedy.


Pedro Flores v. Corporación del Cobre-Division Salvador, Rol. 2.052 (1988)