It’s Cheaper--and Maybe Illegal : U.S. Publishers Dumping Ink in Mexico

A small asphalt-manufacturing facility in a suburb of this border city has become the focus of a growing international controversy involving the decisions of some U.S. companies to ship contaminated wastes to Mexico to avoid high disposal costs in the United States.

For more than a year, 10 California newspaper companies, publishing and ink firms have contracted with a U.S. hauler who has been shipping large volumes of their waste ink to the Tijuana firm, known as Industrias de Monte Cristo, S.A. The firm has been using the ink in the production of asphalt, some of which may have been sold back to the United States.

Printer’s ink, consisting primarily of refined oils and organic pigments, is considered a hazardous substance in California, and its disposal is regulated by federal and state environmental law. Officials say waste ink may be contaminated with toxic industrial solvents that are used in printing presses.

Although Industrias has been receiving waste ink for at least a year, the plant has no permit from the Mexican federal environmental agency, the Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology, according to Cesar Velarde, director of social communication for the agency’s office in Mexicali. Any facility using potentially dangerous substances must have a permit from the agency, Velarde said.

On Tuesday, California Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) cited the ink shipments as an example of the failure of state officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to properly monitor exports of U.S. wastes. Peace also noted the recent discovery of an illegal dump--containing wastes from the United States--in the Mexican border city of Tecate. U.S. officials fear that a growing amount of toxic waste from the United States is ending up in Mexico.

“The bottom line is that there’s no attention being given to this problem at the EPA,” said Peace.

On Wednesday, residents living near the site where Industrias de Monte Cristo is situated said the facility has not been operating for about two weeks but it was unclear whether the plant was shut down for a prolonged period or awaiting additional shipments of waste or oil. Residents said the plant had been in existence for at least five years, but ownership had changed during that period.

Neighbors said there was a fire at the facility in December that forced at least one family to leave their home while firefighters put out the blaze. Manuel Machaen, an inspector with the Tijuana fire department, said the fire began when a tank ruptured. No one was injured, Machaen said.

At the plant site Wednesday, no company officials were available to comment on the facility’s operation. One worker and a secretary were present, but both declined to comment on the plant’s operations. Enrique Rodriguez, the general manager, and a company lawyer could not be reached.

The plant is situated on a hillside site of several acres amid an industrial and commercial area in the Tijuana suburb of La Gloria, about 10 miles south of downtown Tijuana. The site includes large metal tanks in which the ink and oil were burned for the production of asphalt, along with other tanks apparently used for storage. The waste ink arrived at the site in tanker trucks and was apparently moved to and from the facility through a network of pipes.

Also on the site are a number of pools of an unidentified black liquid.

Industrias de Monte Cristo buys the waste ink from a San Pedro firm called Waste Disposal Systems, a state-licensed waste hauler paid by numerous California newspapers, publishing companies and ink firms to haul away and dispose of their used ink. The sources of the wastes include Times Mirror Press, a subsidiary of Times Mirror Co. that publishes telephone books; the San Diego Union and Tribune, and the Santa Ana-based Orange County Register, public documents indicate.

For at least a year, Waste Disposal Systems has been trucking the ink to the Mexican border at a rate of about two tank trucks a week, said Gary Gaston, president of the firm. Once at the border, Gaston said, Mexican drivers hook the tanks to Mexican trucks and transport them the last 10 miles to the asphalt plant. Gaston could not say exactly how long the operation had been going on, although he estimated that the shipments had existed for one to two years.

While the exact amount of ink transported is not known, public documents show that the volume has been substantial. Waste-transport documents filed with the state Department of Health Services indicated that newspapers and ink firms were making regular shipments in amounts ranging from 1,200 to 37,000 gallons, depending on the size of the firm.

Once it is delivered to the plant, Gaston said, the ink is placed in storage tanks and later heated and boiled down to produce hot liquid asphalt. He said the asphalt is then shipped out for sale, some of it back to the United States.

Gaston said it was not surprising that the plant is not operating, since it produces asphalt according to supply and demand. Gaston said his company continues to ship waste to Industrias and that it probably is being stored until it is needed.

Responding to criticism, Gaston acknowledged that there had been “a screw-up in the paper work” in the ink shipments. He referred to Assemblyman Peace’s charge on Tuesday that many firms sending ink to Mexico had failed to obtain all the documentation required under state and federal laws. Peace characterized the documentation as a crucial means of tracking hazardous materials. Peace said two firms, Times Mirror Co. and Flint Ink of Industry, filed the proper notification with the EPA.

“I’m not going to deny that somebody probably has not done every little thing and followed every little detail,” Gaston said. “But there’s so many details.”