For instance, in 2007, the General Directorate for Water (Direccion General de Aguas, DGA) and the Regional Environmental Commission (Comision Regional del Medio Ambiente, COREMA), rejected an environmental impact assessment of a plan by one mining company to extract additional groundwater from aquifers in the Pampa Colorada area in San Pedro de Atacama. The plan had generated considerable protests from indigenous communities over the potential impact on local wetlands (Larrain and Schaeffer, 2010). With copper prices at a historic high, it is reasonable to assume that mining activities in Antofagasta will continue to expand in the near future (Trading Economics, 2013).