Power plant waste generating big problems in Mexicali

Americas - Mexico
23 May 2005 - El Universal

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Since it was first put into operation in 1972, the geothermic electric plant at Cerro Prieto has been the target of complaints by nearby residents and farmers who blame the facility for poor crop production and a variety of health problems.
The plant is built around more than 100 geothermic wells, which produce energy that is converted to electricity. Local farmers say that the conversion process creates a water vapor that damages their fields. The plant's neighbors say that the same wastes are damaging their health.

"The constant exhalation of the vapor generates a sort of salty breeze that bathes our fields 24 hours a day," says farmer Ángel Verdugo. "The result is infertile soil."

"My family and I have spent our whole lives just a few meters from the power plant," says José Manuel García. "And the has caused deafness in my two children (ages 13 and 15). That's why we're asking the Federal Electric Commission (CFE) to pay us a compensation, but they refuse to acknowledge us."

Local doctor Ernesto Alonso Valdéz says that he believes that the noise and pollution produced by the electric plant are indeed responsible for the hearing loss in García's children. And he says that he has seen a steady yearly increase in the number of people suffering from respiratory illnesses, a phenomenon he also blames on the electric plant.

"We did a study along with the authorities in Yuma, Arizona, that revealed that the pollution generated by the Cerro Prieto plant has had negative effects on the air, soil and vegetation of the entire region," says Román Calleros, researcher at the Autonomous University of Baja California, who says that the problem lies in waste waters that are saturated with harmful acids.

"I work in this area and I have noticed an especially high amount of sulfuric acid," says Calleros.

The researcher says that in order to stop the environmental and public health damage being caused by the wastes, the plant's operator, CFE, should implement a new waste removal program. Instead of sending its wastes into drainage canals or into the air as vapor, he says that the contaminated material should be buried in the subsoil at a depth no less than 2,000 meters.

According to Calleros, a similar program has been implemented successfully at a geothermic electricity plant in Heber, California.

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