Plans for a hazardous-waste disposal center south of the U.S.-Mexican border in Mexico’s Sonora state has raised environmental, jurisdictional and cultural questions. Mexican officials say the facility would help address a severe lack of hazardous-waste-disposal capacity in the country, thereby reducing the illegal dumping of toxics. But the project, which has yet to secure local construction permits, has drawn objections from environmental, tribal and community groups in part because of its location on land indigenous residents consider sacred. Opponents also charge that the project, sponsored by the private company Center for Integral Waste Management (Cegir), poses unacceptable environmental risks and was approved improperly. Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) first approved permits for the project in Oct. 2005. It authorized... [Log in to read more]