The latest threat from a proposed toxic waste site apparently is a matter of several miles southwest of the Sonora state border with Arizona , not far from the beach resort of Puerto Peñasco, on a 100-hectare private property near Mexico Route 2, which connects the border town of Sonoyta with the city of Caborca . Watchdogs and whistleblowers said recently that Mexico's federal Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) gave approval of an impact statement and an operating permit for a US$4.5 million confinement facility to the private, Hermosillo-based Centro de Gestión Integral de Residuos S.A. de C.V.
You can't prove any of that by the books, because as is so often the unfortunate case, Semarnat's Internet “Publication of the Projects Submitted and Resolved in Central Offices and Delegations” is not currently accessible. It sure raises the question, though, of whether the public information is being hidden deliberately. That's especially true since the federal and state governments' records for attempting to permit industrial waste confinement facilities in Mexican communities are dirtier than the hazardous materials they would like to dump there.
Remember Metalclad's La Pedrera toxic waste confinement site proposed north of the capital of San Luis Potosí ? The California company's Mexican subsidiary never could operate it after local people got fed up with its false pretenses, so the owners won a US$15 million “free-trade” judgment against Mexico in 2001 for inability to do business, and they left tons of toxics there.
Remember the one proposed by the same company outside of the capital of Aguascalientes ? While the previous case was still in litigation, Metalclad decided not to pursue its US$12-million proposal on the 233-hectare site in municipality of El Llano in the face of local opposition that foiled construction in 1998.
Remember the one on the outskirts of the capital of Hermosillo ? In 2003, the Spanish company Tecmed won a US$5.5 million “free-trade” judgment that Mexican taxpayers must shoulder the burden for the federal government's refusal to renew its permit to operate the Cytrar confinement, which had caused weeks of protest sit-ins in the capital.
It left the cleanup of some 300,000 tons of toxic waste to the government in a case that has been the subject of three citizen complaints to the tri-national North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Now a Pollyanna “Citizens Council for Environmental Protection” has emerged to legitimate government proposals to get this monkey off its back.
It is crucial to learn from these lessons to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Not one single toxic confinement should be built until Mexico compiles an inventory of its industrial hazardous discharges. Citizens should be involved in the decision-making about sites. Credible technical studies should be the basis of the decisions.
Until those requisites are met, environmental organizations, media, individuals, and government representatives should throw all their weight behind investigating and preventing the latest proposal, because it is both environmentally and economically a greater potential threat than the problem it purports to resolve.
The Sonora state and the local government, which it advises, certainly can stand up to the federal government when and if they want to. The question is whether they want to. Meanwhile, Sonora's federal delegate for Semarnat, Florencio Diaz Armenta, has been encouraging the operation for many months now, saying that it could “guarantee” more investment and generate jobs.
Given the inertia to overcome in the halls of government, it is incumbent on the residents of the proposed site to request a public hearing from the Semarnat on the environmental impact study as soon as humanly possible—before the legal time limit is up and before the puppet citizen council rubber stamps the proposal. The successful effort to bar the Aguascalientes proposal began with just such a request.
Secondly, residents can make sure the city fathers do not buckle under to pressure for the land use change permit necessary for this malarkey. That's what the denizens of La Pedrera, SLP did to stop the toxic waste confinement operation there. San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, and previous Hermosillo efforts also included protest demonstrations blocking the gates of the private investors' property for the projects.
In Sonora , like in the other states, the company and government representatives claim they have supplied all the information in the public interest while in fact providing a passel of disinformation in the interest of deceit. It is necessary to cut through the balderdash.
As the Association of Non-Governmental Organizations of Sonora State puts it: “Toxic waste is a national security problem, not a dirty business.” Or at least it shouldn't be.
Talli Nauman is the Americas Program Associate at the International Relations Center. This article originally was published by The Herald Mexico - El Universal in Mexico City.
