Ethics Newsline®

MEXICO CITY
Mexican and U.S. environmental groups last week filed a criminal complaint against a Mexican-Japanese salt company that they say is polluting a protected marine sanctuary in Baja California, killing hundreds of protected sea turtles, gray whales, and fish.

Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) joined Mexican groups in calling for criminal charges against the salt giant ESSA, co-owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and the Mexican government.

The groups fault the Mexican government for conflict of interest and inaction, saying that government studies have shown illegal levels of ESSA pollution for years, the Reuters news agency reported.

Government investigators have blamed ESSA’s brine discharges — which they say contain heavy metals and salt in concentrations between 100 and 300 times sea levels — for causing wildlife kill-offs in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, the largest such sanctuary in Latin America and a U.N. World Heritage Site since 1993.

ESSA has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and is preparing to request government approval for an expansion of its salt-making facilities in the Reserve.