Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) closed eight textile companies and fined dozens of firms in Puebla and Tlaxcala for discharging untreated chemicals into the Atoyac River basin.
Semarnat issued fines totaling 56 million pesos to industries located in the Atoyac River basin, between the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala, and also closed eight establishments.
The head of the agency, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, reported that inspections were carried out at 89 companies, prioritizing the textile sector due to its concentration of the largest volume of polluting discharges into the river.
Federal inspections revealed that small family-run denim workshops were dumping dyes directly into the storm drain system that flows into the basin. During the federal press conference, the federal official explained that the inspections uncovered a scheme where large textile companies subcontract denim washing and dyeing services to small workshops or private homes. In these locations, water containing chemical residues and dyes is discharged directly into the river without any treatment.
In this regard, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated that discharges from the textile industry pose a complex problem because chemical pollution requires more rigorous removal processes than organic pollution.
She also mentioned that the federal government is already developing a strategy to regulate the operation of these small subcontracting workshops and prevent them from continuing to discharge wastewater into the river.
These inspections are part of the national program for the cleanup of priority watersheds, within which the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has evaluated the environmental performance of 280 companies nationwide: 89 on the Atoyac River, 63 on the Tula River, and 128 on the Lerma River. The federal government confirmed that it will maintain environmental monitoring to ensure compliance with industrial discharge regulations.
Source: elpopular
