| Montreal, 3/06/2008 – On 30 May 2008, the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) instructed the CEC Secretariat to develop a factual record for submission SEM-03-003 (Lake Chapala II), filed with the Secretariat on 23 May 2003, by Instituto de Derecho Ambiental, Fundación Lerma-Chapala-Santiago-Pacífico, Sociedad Amigos del Lago de Chapala, Comité Pro-Defensa de Arcediano, Amigos de la Barranca, Ciudadanos por el Medio Ambiente, Amcresp, Red Ciudadana, and residents of the community of Juanacatlán, Jalisco (the “Submitters”).
The Submitters assert that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law with respect to management of water in the Lerma-Chapala basin, causing environmental degradation of the watershed and the risk that Lake Chapala and its migratory bird habitat could disappear. According to the Submitters, the authorities are failing to enforce the law by not conducting systematic, ongoing monitoring of water quality in the Santiago River and by approving the environmental impact statement for the Arcediano dam project before solving the river’s pollution problem. According to the Submitters, the National Water Commission (Comisión Nacional del Agua—CNA) delegates authority to make far-reaching decisions on water administration to the watershed councils, closing the door to review of these decisions through administrative appeals. They note that the watershed councils do not guarantee public participation and that their decisions do not give priority to environmental protection.
In March 2004, Mexico filed a response to the submission in which it stated that it is monitoring the Santiago River through the National Water Quality Monitoring Network (Red Nacional de Monitoreo de la Calidad del Agua) and that it has a comprehensive cleanup program for the entire watershed. Concerning the Arcediano dam project, Mexico asserts that the environmental impact assessment took sustainable water use criteria into account. Mexico states that it is enforcing the water-related laws through the Office of the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente—Profepa) and the CNA. Concerning the watershed councils, Mexico notes that they do not make decisions of a legal nature on behalf of the authorities.
On 18 May 2005, the Secretariat notified the Council that it considers the submission to warrant preparation of a factual record. On 30 May 2008, the Council, by means of Resolution 08-01, unanimously decided to instruct the Secretariat to develop a factual record. In its Resolution, the Council requested that the Secretariat limit the factual record to the area containing the Arcediano dam within the Lerma-Chapala watershed.
The CEC was established under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (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 Council, the organization’s governing body, is composed of the top environment officials of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit to the Secretariat a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters web page.
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