Frontera NorteSur July-August 2002

The landfill is located near the 18 kilometer marker on the Nuevo Laredo-Piedras Negras highway, on either the San Francisco or Altos Amarillo ejido lands, a few miles from the Rio Grande. The source of the waste was not indicated in the article.

Unnamed experts contacted by El Mañana said that although the treated sewage is not toxic, it should be confined so that it does not contaminate area aquifers.

So far, about 3 hectares (7.5 acres) have been covered in the waste which exudes a bad odor. Once the waste has been left in a field, heavy machinery covers it with dirt.

The company running the project is Materiales Regionales, according to El Mañana.

Company owner José Luis Carranza Reyes went out to the site to meet El Mañana's reporters and quickly showed them a document from the Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano y Ecología (Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology) that gives his company permission to operate the landfill. However, Carranza did not allow El Mañana reporters to closely examine the document he showed them.

The newspaper also reported that workers at the site said they had no idea what they were burying and stated that they had just been hired a few days previously.

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), June 6, 2002. Article by Gastón Monge.

Tamaulipas to Develop Beaches, Attract Tourism

Over the next two years, 47 million pesos (approximately US$5,000,000) will be spent on developing tourism to Tamaulipas beaches. While officials recognize that the investment is low for a development project, they are confident that the money will spark visits to the region. Tamaulipas has 420 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico.

Alfonso Salazar Arzola, the director of Turismo y Asuntos Internacionales (Tourism and International Affairs) for the state of Tamaulipas, said that the first step in the development project is to resolve land ownership issues between federal and city governments and private landowners.

The project's first initiative is already underway: 14 condominiums being built at the cost of 10 million pesos on the Miramar beach.

After finding a solution to property conflicts in the cities of Madero and Tampico, another 112 condominiums will be constructed in that part of Southern Tamaulipas along with a 200 room hotel.
A private company, Villas Bagdad, is working on a US$2 million project at Matamoros' Bagdad beach. The company will develop houses and condominiums there and is currently engaged in bringing water, sewers and electrical service to the area.

Tamaulipas' beach development effort is overseen by a council composed of the state government, the Fondo Nacional de Turismo (Fonatur), the city of Madero, and the Tamex company, according to Salazar.

Salazar said that any groups interested in acquiring land along the Tamaulipas coast must immediately begin construction and may not take part in land speculation. Business ventures that do not follow these rules will have their land reacquired by the state, he stated.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), June 3, 2002.

Infectious Waste Improperly Disposed of in Méxicali

A truck filled with infectious hospital waste was seized by environmental officials at a Méxicali waste transfer station not able to handle such material. The vehicle belonged to a waste-disposal company called "Gen" and was carrying needles, syringes, and other blood-contaminated items from government-run medical clinics. The truck was the second Gen vehicle seized within a week and the company's business license was revoked by Mexico's environmental protection agency (Profepa).

According to the Méxicali newspaper La Crónica, Profepa is considering fining the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) which is the government agency that runs the clinics where the infectious waste originated. However, the IMSS replied that it is not responsible for waste found at the transfer station and said that it followed all the appropriate infectious-waste disposal procedures.

An official at the waste transfer station stated that infectious waste needs to be disposed of properly and not thrown in with the city's other waste. He said that one related health concern is for the people that make a living by sorting recyclable materials out of the city's waste stream. Some of these people get needles stuck in their arms and hands when they are going threw garbage, he stated.

Source: La Crónica, May 15 & 16, 2002. Article by Beatriz Limón.