'Pemex's Ecological Impact Devastating' in Mexican States Hosting Oil Operations Yvonne Reyes Campos - The News
go to original May 22, 2013

MEXICO CITY – Mexican oil giant Pemex’s environmental impact has been “devastating,” Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Deputy Mirna Hernandez Morales said Tuesday.
 
States hosting Pemex operations suffer from water, land and air pollution, said Hernandez Morales, adding that in some areas deforestation has hit 40 percent.
 
Members of the Chamber of Deputies Prevention, Conservation and Environmental Restoration Committee are meeting with Pemex officials in company offices nationwide so that lawmakers can personally inspect conditions in surrounding areas and discuss environmental damage caused by the company.
 
“Unfortunately the ecological impact that has resulted from Pemex operations in several states has been devastating to water, aquifers, the environment, the air and (has) caused illnesses,” Hernandez Morales said.
 
She called authorities’ attempts to downplay Pemex’s environmental impact by arguing that the company provides jobs and development sad, adding that committee members will try to find ways to create jobs while protecting the environment.
 
Hernandez Morales’ announcement comes five days after two communities in the state of Tabasco filed a class action suit against the oil company for repeated spills at Pemex facility sites, according to Inter Press Services. The communities have a combined population of 300,000.
 
The company is active in 13 of Tabasco’s 17 municipalities, but critics say that income derived from drilling and processing has, instead of bene- fitting local residents, displaced tradi- tional activities like banana farming and cattle ranching.

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