Edomex companies fear chrome pollution

Several companies set up in Mexico state (Edomex) have threatened to relocate from the Tultitlan industrial zone if chrome pollution is found to be prevalent, El Economista reported. The Edomex state government has asked Tultitlan-based firms to send weekly water and environment analyses, including chrome concentration. The area had been the site of chrome company Cromatos de Mexico. The companies include a distillery of rum-maker Bacardi. Bacardi is particularly concerned that the local water quality is sound. If there is even "a remote possibility" that excessive levels of chrome have filtered into the underground water sources, Bacardi would "without doubt," leave the area, Bacardi's operations VP Amaro Argamasilla Bacardi was quoted as saying. However, monitoring has been going on in the area since 1999, so far without incident. Cromatos de Mexico, a unit of German company Bayer, operated on the site between 1958 and 1978 and produced 12t/d chrome and aluminum for the vehicle industry. According to Edomex environmental secretary Arlette Lopez, as previously reported in El Economista, authorities have still not agreed which tier of government - state, federal or municipal - is responsible for the 380mn peso (US$34.3mn) clean-up of the 2,000 sq. m. site, BNamericas previously reported. The dangers of chrome in the environment were back in the spotlight earlier this week when Guanajuato state reported extensive chrome pollution in ground water and soil from a local plant, owned by QCM (Quimica Central de Mexico).