| Montreal, 8/05/2007 – On 4 May 2007, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) received a revised citizen submission in which the organization Pro San Luis Ecológico (the “Submitter”) asserts that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws with respect to the authorization of an open pit mining project in the town of Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí.
Submission SEM-07-001 (Minera San Xavier) was submitted to the CEC Secretariat on 5 February 2007. On 4 April 2007, the Secretariat determined that the submission did not satisfy all the criteria listed in Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and granted the Submitter a period of 30 business days to file a submission meeting those requirements. In the revised submission, the Submitter asserts that Minera San Xavier’s environmental impact statement documents the existence of endangered species and foresees a negative impact on air and water quality in the project area. The Submitter also provides information on an appeal filed against the environmental impact authorization issued in 2006 and references communications with government authorities regarding matters raised in the submission.
The CEC Secretariat will now analyze the revised submission to determine whether it meets the requirements of Article 14 of the NAAEC.
The CEC citizen submission mechanism allows citizens to play an active “whistleblower” role in matters relating to environmental law enforcement. Pursuant to NAAEC Article 14, any citizen or nongovernmental organization may file a submission where it believes that a NAFTA partner is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. After reviewing the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and publish a factual record of its findings.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. | 
