On April 9, 2026, the Province of La Pampa filed the first lawsuit against Law No. 27,804 —the reform approved by Congress that amended Law No. 26,639 , which established minimum standards for the preservation of glaciers and periglacial environments—and requested the immediate invalidation of the law nationwide. The lawsuit, filed in the Federal Court of Santa Rosa , has the support of the provincial government, the public university, civil society organizations, and a massive citizen mobilization that has already garnered over 800,000 signatures and aims to reach one million.

The presentation was signed by Governor Sergio Ziliotto, State Attorney Romina Schmidt, and provincial representatives Andrés Gil Domínguez and Alejandrina Aballay Andiarena. It is supported by the National University of La Pampa (Rector Oscar Alpa), the Chadileuvú Foundation (Vice President Héctor Gómez), and the Assembly for the Rivers of La Pampa (President Roberto Rodríguez). Meanwhile, national environmental organizations—the Association of Environmental Lawyers, the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation, Greenpeace, the Circle of Environmental Policies, and the Argentine Biodiversity Foundation—are leading the massive signature drive that supports the initiative's political legitimacy.

The central claim: regression and interjurisdictional impact

The lawsuit challenges the reform, arguing that it represents a clear regulatory setback that lowers the standard of protection for ecosystems that are strategic for the country's water reserves. It states that the amendment redefines and fragments environmental protection: it establishes local verifications to determine the existence of a water function, weakens the role of the National Glacier Inventory and IANIGLA (National Institute of Glacier and Ice Research), and transfers decisions that were previously subject to a uniform national framework to the provinces.

This fragmentation, the plaintiffs warn, is not neutral: provinces located downstream—such as La Pampa—depend on hydrological processes originating in mountain basins. Thus, decisions made in Catamarca, Mendoza, or San Juan directly impact the availability and quality of water in the Pampas plains. The document invokes Articles 41, 43, and 75, section 22, of the National Constitution, advisory opinions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and provisions of the Escazú Agreement, and requests that Law 27,804 and any regulations issued as a consequence be declared null and void.

Legislative procedure in question

The lawsuit dedicates a chapter to irregularities in the public hearings of the legislative process: it alleges that, despite being advertised as an “open, inclusive, and federal” process, oral participation was restricted to the first registered participants in each jurisdiction, forcing the rest to participate through written submissions or pre-recorded videos. According to the signatories, this alteration violated the right to citizen participation, constituted unequal treatment, and rendered meaningless an essential guarantee of the environmental procedure, in violation of the Escazú Agreement.

Precautionary measure: request for immediate suspension

Along with the legal arguments, a precautionary measure was requested under Law No. 26,854 : the immediate inapplicability and suspension of the effects of the reform throughout the country, also ordering the national government and the provinces to refrain from issuing any acts based on the law . The petitioners argue the likelihood of their claim and the danger of serious and irreversible environmental damage: glaciers and periglacial environments are non-renewable ecosystems on a human timescale, whose alteration could be irreversible even if the law is later declared unconstitutional.

The lawsuit also supports the acceptance of a sworn guarantee instead of an economic counter-guarantee to facilitate access to environmental justice and cites jurisprudential precedents that protect the right to water (the “Majul” and “Mendoza” rulings).

Citizen mobilization and collective strategy

Alongside the legal proceedings, leading environmental organizations are promoting a petition campaign that has already garnered over 800,000 signatures. Although the legal validity of the class action does not require a minimum number of signatures, its organizers emphasize the political and symbolic value of this mobilization: “The defense of water is no longer in the hands of Congress; now it is in the hands of the people,” the organizers maintain, calling for an end to “the betrayal of the will of the people.”