| Montreal, 24/10/2003 – The Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today submitted the final factual record for the Rio Magdalena submission (SEM-97-002) to the CEC Council.
The Río Magdalena submission was filed with the CEC on 7 April 1997, by Comité Pro Limpieza del Río Magdalena. The Submitters contend that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law by allowing wastewater to be discharged into the Magdalena River from the municipalities of Imuris, Santa Ana and Magdalena de Kino in Sonora, Mexico, without proper treatment.
Council instructed the Secretariat to prepare a factual record on 7 March 2002. Council may now, by a two-thirds vote, make the final factual record available to the public.
Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) provides that the CEC Secretariat may consider a submission from any person or nongovernmental organization asserting that a Party to the NAAEC is failing to effectively enforce an environmental law. Where the Secretariat determines that the NAAEC Article 14(1) criteria are met, it may then proceed with a process that can lead to the development of a factual record on the matter.
The CEC was established under the NAAEC to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the context of liberalized trade. The CEC Council, the organization's governing body, is composed of the top environment officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
For further information, please consult: <http://www.cec.org/citizen>.
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