In the 1970s water was pumped from Chungará Lake to the Azapa Valley to allow for irrigation, but quickly ceased when water levels dropped and the flora and fauna of the lake were damaged. For this purpose, the Canal Chungará was built by the Chilean Ministry of Public Works to transfer water into the Laguna Cotacotani which is the headwater of the Lauca-Azapa system. This project was opposed by environmentalists. On the 19th December 1985 the lake was the subject of a major legal case when the Chilean Supreme Court ruled that international obligations such as the CITES need to be considered by the Chilean government and prohibited the use of the waters of Chungará Lake; the ruling by disallowing the use of the waters of Chungará Lake forced the Arica y Parinacota Region to seek other sources of water for the growing economy. Accumulation of rubbish in the area of Chungará Lake has become a major issue, as a lot of waste is discarded by for example drivers on the Chungara–Tambo Quemado road between Chile and Bolivia. The Chilean government has thus organized cleanup operations to remove some of the waste. The lake hosts a diverse plant and animal community. The landscape around the lake includes wetlands known as "bofedales"; otherwise the vegetation in the region of the lake consists mainly of "Polylepis" dwarf trees, shrubs and tussock grasses. The shoreline vegetation draws birds in such as Andean gull, Chilean flamingo, crested duck, giant coot and Puna plover. Aided by the highly transparent waters, large amounts of aquatic plants live in Chungará Lake and are particularly noticeable on the southern shores, where "Myriophyllum elatinoides" and "Potamogeton filifolius" occur. The shores are inhabited by amphibians such as "Rhinella", "Pleurodema" and "Telmatobius", and by molluscs and turbellaria such as "Ancylus", "Pisidium" and "Taphius". The phytoplankton of the lake is dominated by diatoms in winter and by chlorophyceae in summer. Algae include both the large "Cladophora" and "Nostoc" genera and the small "Botryococcus braunii", "Cocconeis placentula", "Cyclotella andina" and "Nephroclamys subsolitaria"; the second and the third are diatoms.