Mexico Green Groups Go After Pemex For Oil Spills
Date: 03-Feb-05
Country: MEXICO
Author: Catherine Bremer
Greenpeace and the Mexican Centre for Environmental Law (Cemda) lobby group said they had lodged a formal complaint with the Mexican attorney general over a December crude oil spill that oozed down the Coatzacoalcos river in Veracruz state.
The groups have also asked Mexico's environmental watchdog, Profepa, to double a fine of roughly $200,000 it slapped on Pemex, which has reported five pipeline spills in the Gulf of Mexico states of Veracruz and Tabasco since October.
The spills have killed wildlife -- including dozens of cattle hit by a tide of toxic naphtha fuel -- and sent fish fleeing to cleaner waters, idling hundreds of local fishermen.
Locals in the area, most of whom cannot afford bottled water, are concerned their well water could be contaminated.
The debate over the spills -- which Pemex blames on underfunding and the fact Congress controls its budget -- heated up late on Monday with a debate in the lower house of deputies.
Raising earlier estimates for repair costs, Pemex chief Luis Ramirez demanded 150 billion pesos ($13.4 billion) for an urgent pipeline renovation program from 2005 to 2008.
He said last year's maintenance budget of 15 billion pesos was the lowest in a decade, and far below international norms.
"These incidents have proved what we already knew: it costs more to remedy than to prevent," Ramirez, who took over as head of Pemex in November, told deputies during the debate.
"We cannot limit ourselves to dealing with accidents and their consequences, we must concentrate on preventing more accidents from happening."
Critics accuse Pemex of trying to shift the blame and say Mexico's biggest company should take responsibility for overlooking rusting pipelines for so many years.
Mexico's IMP oil research institute estimates that half of Mexico's pipelines are more than 30 years old and corroded.
"Pemex does bear some responsibility. It could have gone to Congress 25 years ago to ask for more resources," said Greenpeace Mexico President Alejandro Calvillo.
He said tests conducted in 2000 by British scientists and Greenpeace showed the area around the Coatzacoalcos river, dotted with oil installations and petrochemical plants, to be one of the most contaminated in the American continent.
"It should not be possible for it to be so dirty. We need to have cleaner, more responsible practices in the oil industry," he told Reuters.
Greenpeace also blames lax environmental controls in Mexico, noting Profepa is part of the environment ministry and so has less clout than if it were independent.
Mexico is the world's No. 9 oil exporter, selling much of its 1.95 million barrels per day to the United States.