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| Contact:
Amelia Simpson, (619) 235-0281 With
cleanup in sight, community celebrates (Tijuana, Mexico) – Members of the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) and its Tijuana affiliate, the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, joined Mexico’s top environmental minister and the governor of Baja California state today at a site visit and signing ceremony finalizing an agreement for comprehensive cleanup of a toxic problem that has plagued Colonia Chilpancingo residents for more than a decade. “Today, Secretary Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez of Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and Governor Eugenio Elorduy Walther visited Metales y Derivados and saw for themselves the horrific toxic waste dump next to our community,” said Lourdes Luján, a Colectivo organizer and resident of Colonia Chilpancingo. “Our years of efforts to call attention to the poisoning of our community, and to demand community participation in the development and implementation of a comprehensive cleanup plan, have succeeded.” Secretary Cárdenas named Metales y Derivados his number one toxic site cleanup priority for 2004. The agreement commits the Mexican government to a timeline for comprehensive cleanup of the site within five years. Signing the agreement are two officials of SEMARNAT, the Director of the State’s Ecology Department, and two members of the Colectivo. The agreement establishes a joint community and government Working Group to plan and monitor the cleanup process. Composed of members of the Colectivo and officials of SEMARNAT, the Office of Integral Projects for Hazardous Materials and Activities, and the Office of Ecology, the Working Group will be officially formed on July 7. According to the agreement, the Working Group is charged with overseeing the Metales y Derivados cleanup project with a “deadline of five years for the conclusion of the complete remediation of the site.” “We welcome the willingness of government officials to work with us to achieve a comprehensive cleanup and thus defend Colonia Chilpancingo and the San Diego/Tijuana border region’s right to a healthy and safe environment,” observed Magdalena Cerda, Community Organizer with EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign. “The participation of the affected community with government from beginning to end of the process will build confidence for this and other groups seeking justice in working together in the future.” First stage of cleanup to be completed by November 1 Today at the Metales y Derivados site, Secretary Cárdenas announced that $700,000 from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has been designated for carrying out the first of four stages of the remediation project. The first stage, to be initiated by July 1 and be completed within four months, involves the removal and transport to a hazardous waste confinement facility still to be designated, of 2,500 tons of toxic material. Hazardous waste including lead, arsenic, cadmium and antimony contained in disintegrating drums, bundles, and piled at the site will be removed. The Metales y Derivados abandoned lead smelter stands just 150 yards from Colonia Chilpancingo, home to more than 10,000 people. 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, who currently lives in San Diego, left behind almost 24,000 tons of mixed hazardous waste, including 7,000 metric tons of lead slag exposed to the elements. No cleanup funds have been provided by the smelter’s parent company, San Diego-based New Frontier Trading Corporation, which continues to operate. Metales y Derivados a NAFTA failure A 1998 petition filed with the environmental oversight commission of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by EHC and Colonia Chilpancingo prompted a report released in February 2002 validating community health concerns about the toxic contamination from Metales y Derivados. Independent analysis by experts cited in the report confirmed the need for urgent action to halt adverse health effects on people living or working in proximity to the unsecured, hazardous site. No cleanup of the site resulted, however, since the NAFTA commission has no enforcement mechanism. “Metales y Derivados is the landmark case demonstrating the failure of NAFTA to protect the environment,” said Amelia Simpson, Director of EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign. “The trade agreement, rather than contribute to Mexico's capacity for addressing environmental problems, exacerbated problems by bringing more industry and pollution without providing resources to compensate for Mexico's lower budget for the environment. In 1999, the US had $27 per capita to spend on the environment, while Mexico had only $11. NAFTA encouraged industries to move operations to Mexico, without creating any enforcement mechanism to compel those industries that pollute to clean up their toxic waste.” Negotiations are currently under way to expand NAFTA to 34 countries of the hemisphere in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Modelled on NAFTA, CAFTA and the FTAA also lack enforceable environmental protections. The lack of resources for NAFTA-related environmental cleanup concerns Colonia Chilpancingo residents. The $700,000 in funds secured so far for remediation of the Metales y Derivados site is inadequate even for minimal cleanup. “The Metales y Derivados cleanup should be funded fully and without delay, in order to secure justice for this community,” said Andrea Pedro Aguilar, who moved away from her home directly downhill from the Metales y Derivados site after EHC tests showed that her children suffer from lead poisoning. “We are glad that some funding has been designated for the site, but it falls far short of the minimum of $7.2 million needed to complete the job.” ###
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