The Mexican government has announced a series of measures to combat industrial pollution, including $4.8m in fines against a plant processing US hazardous waste and the rollout of a new industrial air-monitoring system. The actions follow investigations by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican investigative unit, which revealed high levels of heavy-metal contamination near the Zinc Nacional factory in the Monterrey metropolitan area.
The investigations found that facilities in the region were releasing more toxic heavy metals into the city’s air than the totals reported in many US states, and more carbon dioxide than nearly half the world’s nations. The government said it would establish a new atmospheric monitoring network for industry, described as “the first of its kind in Latin America”, to measure emissions including heavy metals.
Mariana Boy Tamborrell, Mexico’s federal attorney for environmental protection, said the moves represent a new wave of enforcement. Her agency, Profepa, said the air monitoring system would be rolled out over three years, starting in Monterrey’s industrial area, with Zinc Nacional helping to pay for installation. The nation’s main environmental regulator is also updating air and soil contamination standards, some of which have not been revised for decades.
Zinc Nacional, a Mexican company that imports toxic dust from the US steel industry, must undertake 24 corrective measures in addition to the fine. These include relocating some operations away from residential areas, building new containment and water treatment facilities, remediating contaminated land, reforesting 12 acres, and monitoring future emissions. The company acknowledged some contamination on its site but said its emissions were below regulatory parameters.
Martín Soto Jiménez, a toxicology researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México who conducted soil sampling with the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, called the agreement “a historic step forward for environmental justice in Mexico”. He stressed the importance of making real-time data from the monitoring network public.
