(Repeating story due to Eikon outage on Tuesday)
By Aislinn Laing
SANTIAGO, April 14 (Reuters) - A Chilean environmental court said on Tuesday it would investigate a complaint brought by the government against global miner BHP BHP.AX over allegations of damage to the northern Punta Negra salt flat.
The First Environmental Court, based in the northern Chilean city of Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), said the complaint was brought by the State Defense Council against BHP. The complaint described "continuous, cumulative, permanent and irreparable environmental damage" to the salt flat, 170 kilometres southeast of Antofagasta.
BHP did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The lawsuit said BHP's extraction of water to service its Escondida copper mine - the world's largest - between 1990 and 2017, caused a "severe decline" in the levels of the salt flat's acquifer, "partially or totally" caused the loss of wetlands and vegetation and compromised the survival of its fauna.
"This sustained extraction was such that the aquifer cannot recover on its own within 100 years," the complaint added, according to the court.
The state complaint alleged that BHP had the necessary environment approvals to operate the salt flat but none of these adequately considered the "significant impacts" on its water levels, or sought to mitigate them.
Water has increasingly become a sticking point for major miners operating in Chile.
Lithium miner SQM faced a similar legal challenge brought by local residents. Top competitor Albemarle proposed a monitoring network to assess water levels in the Atacama, the world's driest desert, where they both operate. and environmental groups worry that mining of lithium and copper is damaging a regional ecosystem home to an ancient indigenous culture and turquoise lagoons inhabited with rare pink Chilean flamingos.