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Contact: Jason Baker, (619) 235-0281 EHC,
Colonia Chilpancingo residents present (Tijuana, Mexico) – During a demonstration staged May 16 at the opening of the Encuentro Fronterizo cross-border conference here, members of the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) and its Tijuana affiliate, Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, presented a community-based solution to a toxic problem that has plagued Colonia residents for more than a decade. Holding signs and chanting, “Our community demands cleanup! Here’s our solution!” residents presented a comprehensive cleanup plan for Metales y Derivados, the notorious abandoned lead smelter that stands just 150 yards from Colonia Chilpancingo, home to more than 10,000 people. Almost 24,000 tons of mixed hazardous waste remains at the site, including 7,000 metric tons of lead slag exposed to the elements. “The people of our Colonia will no longer tolerate the poisoning of our community,” said Lourdes Luján, a Colectivo organizer and resident of Colonia Chilpancingo. “The U.S. and Mexican governments have failed to defend our right to a healthy and safe environment, so we took charge and developed a solution. We demand that the Mexican government respect the voice of the people, and implement this cleanup plan immediately.” On May 14, the Colectivo sent a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox and Víctor Lichtinger, Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, requiring the implementation of the community’s cleanup plan in order to comply with Articles 170 and 134 of Mexico’s environmental law (Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente).
A community-based
solution Colonia residents selected a cleanup plan, prepared for EHC and the Colectivo by Enrique Medina of Alliance Consulting International, that calls for comprehensive remediation of the Metales site, and a return of the hazardous waste to its country of origin – the United States – as required under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Under
the Colonia’s plan, all waste at the site will be excavated, placed in
containers, and transported to a hazardous waste landfill in the U.S.
The areas to be excavated contain lead slag waste in drums and bundles,
contaminated concrete, and two enormous piles of toxic waste. The
structures on the site will be demolished and scrapped. This
remediation plan is simple from a technical feasibility standpoint, and
presents the lowest level of risk after the cleanup is concluded. The
estimated cost is $7.2 million, based on disposal at a U.S. facility. “The
Mexican government’s argument that it does not have the money to
cleanup Metales y Derivados is not valid,” said Amelia Simpson,
Director of EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign. “We know
that Mexico paid $15.6 million in an environmental dispute filed under
NAFTA’s Chapter 11 provisions. In any case, you can’t put a price on
human life, or on the health and welfare of a community. The Colonia has
done the difficult work of developing a cleanup plan. It’s now up to
the Mexican government to implement this plan.”
Metales y Derivados recycled lead from car batteries for 12 years before Mexican authorities closed it in March of 1994 for violations of Mexican environmental law. The smelter’s parent company, San Diego-based New Frontier Trading Corporation, left behind tons of toxic waste when its owners abandoned the site. The person responsible for the company, José Kahn, fled Mexico after a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1995 for alleged environmental crimes. Kahn currently lives in San Diego. Adverse health effects confirmed
A report released in February 2002 by NAFTA’s environmental oversight commission validated community health concerns about the toxic contamination from Metales y Derivados. Independent analysis by experts cited in the report confirms the need for urgent action to halt adverse health effects on people living or working in proximity to the unsecured, hazardous site. A petition filed in 1998 by EHC and Colonia Chilpancingo prompted the NAFTA report. The petition asserted that Mexico had failed to enforce its environmental laws when safety measures were not taken to prevent contamination from mounds of abandoned lead, cadmium, arsenic, and antimony. Chilpancingo residents expressed increased concerns about health risks after EHC and the Colectivo organized blood tests of children who live near the Metales site. All 20 children tested positive for elevated blood lead levels. According to a recent study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, lead levels below the current U.S. and international allowable standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter are dangerous, and can cause a drop in I.Q. of up to 7.4 points. In December 2002, the Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported that state health officials plan to conduct more blood tests for lead among people living near Metales y Derivados. A February 16, 2003 Washington Post article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kevin Sullivan prompted even more concern among Chilpancingo residents. In the article, Sullivan details abnormally high rates of birth defects among children in the Colonia. In one two-block area of Colonia Chilpancingo, at least eight babies have been born with anencephaly or hydrocephaly since Metales was shut down. Baja California State health officials are carrying out a study of neural tube defects in Tijuana, due to alarmingly high rates. There is evidence to suggest that lead is one cause of neural tube defects, especially anencephaly. “If all of this toxic waste were a few yards from Mr. Kahn’s home, I’m sure it would be cleaned up,” said Andrea Pedro Aguilar, whose home is directly downhill from the Metales y Derivados site. “It’s hard for people like us, with limited resources, to pick up and leave. I have two children with lead poisoning and am pregnant with my third child. My husband and I are angry and scared. This is what environmental injustice means.” Magdalena Cerda, Community Organizer with EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign, said that even though NAFTA’s own environmental agency has confirmed the threat that Metales y Derivados poses to the community, there are no provisions in the trade agreement to compel a cleanup of the site. “The residents of Colonia Chilpancingo have waited too long and suffered too much while the U.S. and Mexican bureaucracies stand by and refuse to remedy this appalling situation,” Cerda said. “Community residents have taken action to protect themselves and their families. The Mexican authorities must implement this cleanup plan now.” ###
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