Mexican Toxic Waste Plant Loses Permit

Mexico’s environmental secretariat on Thursday revoked the operating permit of that nation’s first toxic waste incinerator, a Tijuana facility five miles from the U.S. border that had been scheduled to begin operation this summer.

The abrupt announcement by Mexico’s equivalent of the EPA, SEDUE (Secretariat for Urban Development and Ecology), came as governors of U.S. and Mexican border states opened a two-day conference here, with environmental problems a central issue.

The revocation of the permit granted four years ago to Illinois-based Chemical Waste Management appeared to be intended as a get-tough message in response to fears that the border region is becoming a toxic dumping ground.

Environmentalists in both the United States and Mexico say pollution related to trans-border industries will accelerate with passage of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, which tops the 10 governors’ meeting agenda, along with the recently approved binational Integrated Environmental Plan for the border.

In an announcement made in Tijuana, SEDUE secretary Patricio Chirinos said that the border cleanup plan requires “us to act with maximum responsibility, in order to protect the health of our population and avoid that which could affect communities on the other side of the border.”

SEDUE revoked the permit because the population has grown rapidly in neighborhoods within 20 kilometers of the incinerator in the past five years, a rate of 4.7% a year, Chirinos said. The company’s environmental impact plan did not reflect this “new urban reality,” he said.

“The project has created great concerns not only in Tijuana, but in San Diego as well,” Chirinos said.

Chemical Waste Management contracted in 1988 with the government, in conjunction with a Mexican partnership, to burn PCBs and other toxic wastes at the incinerator built at a recycling facility on the coast four miles from the Playas de Tijuana neighborhood.

A well-organized protest campaign has been led by residents of Playas de Tijuana and environmental groups in both Mexico and California. Opponents feared a toxic accident could occur; they also predicted long-term health risks from incinerator emissions in the San Diego-Tijuana air basin.

As the start of a scheduled May testing period approached, protests intensified and activists criticized SEDUE for failing to provide basic environmental data and appearing to side with the company.

Company spokesman Joseph Pokorny said the move caught the firm off guard. The company, along with officials of the U.S. and California EPAs, has defended the Tijuana facility and maintained that incineration is a safe and necessary disposal strategy.