WiLD Blog

 Huffington Post

Stench of Sewage

By Carl Pope

Mr. Pope is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club 

Imperial Beach, CA -- The smell, in fact, stretches all the way from the southwest corner of the country to the White House. Vice President Cheney, it turned out, intervened to obtain a non-bid, monopoly contract on cleaning up the sewage that pours from Tijuana into coastal waters off San Diego.
 The company which got the contract, Bajagua, had no experience in treating waste water; its plan was opposed by the State Department, EPA, the Justice Department. When Bill Clinton was in the White House his Office of Management and Budget rejected the plan as unworkable and illegal. But all this opposition melted away after Bush came into office and Cheney intervened on Bajaqua's behalf. Now the project appears to be very far behind schedule, and its not clear it will ever be finished. The project was approved without a budget, and now appears likely, whether finished or not, to cost between $580 million and $780 million. (Cheney had help from recently announced Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter.)

This story has received a little coverage from the San Diego Press, but has been bouncing around the Internet for quite a while, with allegations as well of pressure from Democratic Congressman Bob Filner and newly elected Representative Brian Bilbray. Yesterday the story made the front pages of the Wall Street Journal. Back when Bill Clinton was President, there was a regulation called the "Responsible Contractor" rule which was designed to minimize the awarding of government contracts to unqualified contractors or those who had violated the law. Bush first suspended, and then repealed it, but with Henry Waxman as head of the Investigations and Oversight Committee, expect to be learning a lot more ugly stories about federal contracting under the Bush administration. (And Congress might consider bringing the Responsible Contractor principle back, this time as a statute, with some real teeth.)

One has to wonder whether all this has anything to do with the recent spate of firings of US Attorneys, including Carol Lam, who investigated the "Duke" Cunningham case and would have been in charge of the investigation into Bajaqua's alleged influence peddling.

Puerto Cancun: A fraudulent project

If you think your investment in megaprojects in Mexico is protected because American businessmen are in charge of it, think twice.

Michael E. Kelly was arrested last December by the FBI with charges of fraud for more than 400 million dollars against thousands of American retirees who invested in Kelly's hotels in Mexico. Promising juicy dividends in a short period of time, Kelly convinced thousands of Americans to enter in a pyramidal scheme in which the last beneficiary was Kelly and his family. Kelly lured a lot of Americans by inviting them to Cancun, all expenses covered, to special parties with Mexican government officials (including the governor of the state of Quintana Roo) to check the lifestyle they could enjoy if they invested their money in his megaprojects.

In Cancun, Michael E. Kelly "reactivated" a project in Puerto Cancun, which has had a history of corruption scandals with Mexican and European corporations involved. Even at the time that Kelly obtained the concession for Puerto Cancun in 2003 by the Mexico's National Trust Fund for Tourism Development (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, FONATUR), the Mexican government received tough criticism from authorities in the United States that were already investigating Kelly's investments.

To avoid early prosecution, Michael Kelly kept changing the names of the corporations used in his fraudulent scheme. Some of the companies used were Resort Holdings International, Galaxy Properties and Yucatan Resorts.

Puerto Cancun is only the tip of the iceberg of the millions of dollars of fraudulent investments that Kelly made in Mexico: Hotel Boutique Baccara, Avalon Bay, Avalon Grand, Avalon Reef Club, Odyssey Sporting Club, Avalon Excalibur, and The City Disco, among others.

The FBI in Chicago has an investigation open (file number 312-421-6700) and a phone line available to add names to the list of naive Americans, who thought their investment was safe.

This is a cautionary tale. Think twice before investing in megaprojects in Mexico: they are bad for the environment and for your pockets.

Saul

 

 

 

At least three dozen juvenile sea turtles have been rescued from an arctic blast that caused the water temperature in an arm of the Gulf of Mexico to fall 18 degrees in 48 hours. The turtles, which are cold-blooded, were left comatose by the rapid temperature drop this week in the shallow bay where they feed. Animal rescuers feared that the cold would kill the turtles or make them so sluggish that they would be vulnerable to sharks.
Volunteers and others scooped them up from the surf, bundled them in blankets and towels and took them to the privately run Sea Turtle Inc. rescue center and a University of Texas marine laboratory. The rescuers scrubbed the green turtles clean and put them under a heat lamp until their eyes opened and their flippers twitched, signs that they were recovering and ready to be put in holding tanks where the water temperature was 66 to 68 degrees.

Green turtles are born off the coast of Yucatán in Mexico and spend their early years feeding on turtle grass in shallow bay areas like Laguna Madre off South Padre Island. When they are mature — 15 to 20 years old and weighing about 500 pounds — they return to Mexican waters to breed.

The cold spell dropped air temperatures into the 30s on Monday and Tuesday and caused the water temperature to fall into the 50s. The turtles’ systems began shutting down, and the animals started washing ashore.

The last time it was cold enough for turtles to wash up was in December 2004, when the Rio Grande Valley had its first white Christmas in memory. The last such operation before that was in the 1980s, said Jeff George, the curator of Sea Turtles Inc.

With another cold front expected, Mr. George said the turtles would be housed in the center’s tanks at least a week.

Everybody has to understand that while marine animals are impacted by climate change first, then follow people close to shore, and finally we will all be in trouble if we don’t start now making changes to fight climate change.”

AP filed the report.

One of California's largest tracts of undeveloped tracts of private coastline was sold recently. Cojo Point, home to an amazing array of surfspots and coastal ecosystems to Coastal Management Resources LLC for close to 155 million. This is part of a process in which a large network of developers and speculators with huge pocketbooks are searching to develop surf spots along the globe. Surf spots are now a global commodity. The future--think gated coasts, multi-milion dollar surf bungalows, armed guards protecting the surf against outsiders--wait that sounds like Malibu....And unfortunately it is surfers who seem to be doing the most to make it happen. Serge

PARADISE SOLD?

In recent years oceans throughout the world have been plagued by red tides. Many marine biologists have dismissed the possibility that red tides can cause health problems for humans. Now, medical scientists have found that red tides can be a problem for people who suffer from ashma. Red tide can even be a problem for people who are up to a mile from shore. Serge

NEW YORK TIMES
January 16, 2007

Hazards: When Red Tide Moves From Ocean to Air

Red tides, the blooms of toxic Karenia brevis algae that appear almost every year in Florida, often lasting for months and turning the ocean red, may be dangerous to asthma sufferers — even if they don’t go swimming.

The type of algae that flourishes off Florida is particularly toxic and is often dispersed into the air. When that happens, anyone near the beach will breathe it in. K. brevis aerosols have been measured as far as a mile inland.

Researchers had 97 asthma sufferers, whose average age was 38, take an hourlong walk on a beach in Sarasota, Fla., during a period of high air and water levels of K. brevis cells and brevetoxins, the poison they produce. Before and after their hour at the beach, researchers recorded symptoms and measured each subject’s lung function. The report appears in the January issue of Chest.

The more severe their asthma, the more significant were the decreases in lung function and increases in reported symptoms after the one-hour exposure. An hour of beach exposure during a period when there was no red tide caused no difference in symptoms or respiratory function.

What if an asthma sufferer wants to go to the beach? “Stay vigilant about taking your medicine,” said Barbara Kirkpatrick, a co-author of the study and a program manager at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. “If you do get out to the beach and you’re coughing and it’s a high-toxin day, that’s a day to choose another activity.”

The researchers acknowledge that the study site has common K. brevis contamination, and therefore participants may have had exposure beyond those measured. Studies with more subjects will still be required, they say.

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, added 25 natural protected areas to its list of biosphere reserves in 2006, and 18 of them are in Mexico

This is a joyous note on which to start the new year, because these areas are threatened, even though they are officially protected. The designation means Mexico will receive funding from the international Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program for better conservation. The decision is a real godsend, given the deep gouges the federal administration is making in the already inadequate environmental management budget.

The reserves are the highest category of protected areas, recognized under MAB only where local communities are actively involved in governance and management, research, education, training and monitoring, as well as promoting both socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation of natural resources.

The UNESCO recommends that biosphere reserves use their funding for monitoring, sharing knowledge with stakeholders, updating management plans, and designing and implementing mitigation and preparedness measures.

The new reserves where the recommendations can be applied in Mexico are as follows: Cumbres de Monterrey, the landmark mountains that ensure the water supply for the capital of Nuevo Leon state; Huatulco, which protects endangered sea turtles, dolphins and purple snails on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca state; La Encrucijada, which features shrimping lagoons on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas state; La Primavera, pine and oak corridor located near the capital of Jalisco state; La Sepultura, on ancestral lands of Olmec and other pre-Hispanic cultures in Chiapas; and Laguna Madre and Rio Bravo Delta, a migratory bird haven at the U.S.-Mexico border and Caribbean Sea shore.

Also included are: Los Tuxtlas, a jungle and volcano region of Veracruz state rich in pre-Hispanic archeology; Maderas del Carmen, encompassing parts of the Chihuahuan Desert in Coahuila state adjacent to the U.S. biosphere reserve of Big Bend National Park; Monarch butterfly migration sites symbolic of continental environmental cooperation; Pantanos de Centla, wetlands villages in Tabasco state; Selva El Ocote, rain forests, caves and underground water reserves in Chiapas; Sierra de Huautla, woods full of endemic species in Morelos state; and Volcán Tacana, fragile ecosystems in Chiapas, adjacent to a Guatamalan national park.

Rounding out the list are: Arrecife Alacranes, the largest coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico, and the only one in Yucatán state; Barranca de Metztitlán, home of Otomí Indians and representative wildlife species in Hidalgo state; Chamela-Cuixmala, a Pacific Coast tropical forest harboring iguanas and crocodiles; Cuatrocienagas, an oasis with 500 pools that preserve species found only in the Coahuila state part of the Chihuahua desert; and Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano, an archipelago off the Caribbean coast near Veracruz.

In addition, MAB’s International Coordinating Council extended Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche state and renamed it Región de Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. It now includes more protected areas of the Yucatán Peninsula , which has among the highest biodiversity of Mexico ’s tropical forests. The reserve features important Maya ruins and is considered to be an important part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Congratulations to all the environmental heroes and heroines who have promoted the hometown initiatives to make these areas deserving of inclusion in the biosphere reserve network, which will promote their sustainable development for years to come.FAY

Summary of article by Talli Nauman/The Herald Mexico