Air-Fouling Mexico City Refinery Closed : Pollution: The government orders the shutdown of the No. 1 industrial source of the metropolis’ smog. More drastic action may follow.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari on Monday ordered the immediate closure of a 58-year-old oil refinery in Mexico City that has been a focal point for criticism of environmental policy.

The announcement follows two weeks of the worst air pollution this smoggy city has ever suffered. The government-owned refinery in the working-class neighborhood of Azcapotzalco was the city’s leading industrial polluter, emitting eight types of toxic gases.

Closing the refinery is thought to be the first of several drastic actions the government will take in coming days. It has become increasingly clear that previously planned emergency measures have been insufficient against the cap of cold air that has trapped a cloud of pollution in this mile-high mountain valley.

Ozone levels have reached three times the amount considered satisfactory by international standards. The press has reported that hospital admissions for respiratory problems are up 30%.

Government officials, oil workers and their guests--eyes stinging from the mid-morning air pollution at an outdoor gathering to commemorate the nationalization of the Mexican oil industry in 1938--gave Salinas a standing ovation when he instructed Petroleos Mexicanos’ general manager, Francisco Rojas, to close the refinery Monday afternoon.

Costs associated with the closure, including expenditures for expanding two other refineries in rural areas and temporarily importing gasoline to substitute for the plant’s production, will amount to more than $500 million. The plant supplied 40% of the gasoline burned by this city’s 3 million cars.

The $500 million does not include the cost of relocating the plant’s 5,429 workers or building a new refinery three times as large in a rural area. No decision has been made on either the location of the new refinery or the source of funds for closing the Azcapotzalco plant, government officials said.

The refinery had become a source of friction between city and environmental protection ministry (SEDUE) officials--under pressure to improve the city’s deteriorating air quality--and Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the state-owned oil monopoly that operated the plant.

SEDUE fined the plant recently for excessive emissions and twice this winter ordered it to cut production during smog alerts.

“Several months ago, SEDUE and Mexico City--responding to the demands of the population and based on technical studies--had pointed out the need to partially or completely close the Azcapotzalco facility,” Salinas said. “I am pleased that today Pemex and its workers have presented us with a plan that will make this viable.”

Rojas said, “We evaluated the cost of the investments that would be needed to improve the operation of the refinery and came to the conclusion that the best alternative for decreasing or eliminating its environmental impact was to close it.”

Environmental groups that have agitated for closing the refinery for nearly six years praised the decision.

“It will not only diminish the pollution in Mexico City, it removes a potential source of catastrophe from the metropolitan area,” said a spokeswoman for the Group of 100, an organization of ecology-minded prominent citizens.

Because the city has grown up around the plant, it is now in a densely populated neighborhood, virtually assuring heavy casualties should an explosion occur. In 1984, an explosion at a Pemex natural gas storage tank area in San Juan Ixhuatepec, a Mexico City residential area, killed more than 500.

The refinery site will remain the gasoline distribution center for the Mexico City metropolitan area. The rest of the 435-acre site will be planted with trees, becoming a green belt that Rojas said will separate the distribution area from urban sprawl, assuring public safety.