Commercial activity without an environmental management mechanism in Pedasí

Panama City, Panama, October 21, 2024. On October 2, 2024, Mr. Rubén Córdoba filed a submission with the Secretariat for Environmental Enforcement Matters (SEEM) of the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).

In the submission, identified as No. SALA-CA-PMA/002/2024 and titled "Commercial activity without an environmental management mechanism in Pedasí,” the submitter asserts that the Government of Panama has failed to enforce Law No. 41 of 1998 (Consolidated Text), concerning Articles 15, 19, and 107, related to environmental impact assessments, the obligation to fulfill environmental quality standards, and the types of sanctions applicable in case of administrative infractions, respectively.

The submitter asserts that since December 2022, he filed a complaint with the Citizen Attention Center (#311) for “an alleged environmental violation, specifically on air pollution” and for the dumping of waste from a commercial business that sells construction materials in the sewage system in the district of Pedasí, province of Los Santos.

The submitter also asserts that this complaint was sent to the Ministry of Environment Regional Directorate of Los Santos, where a joint inspection with other authorities of the Municipality of Pedasí was carried out in January 2023. The submitter goes on to describe that this inspection produced a technical report concluding that an environmental audit should be requested and that there were no specific mitigation measures for the activities that were taking place.

The submitter provides a series of documents to support its assertions. Among them is a resolution issued by the Ministry of Environment Regional Directorate of Los Santos in March 2024. The resolution ordered the sanction of the facility, the submission of an environmental audit, and the suspension of loading and unloading of construction materials until the environmental audit is submitted and the necessary mitigation measures begin to be implemented. However, the submitter asserts that the activity is in defiance since they have not complied with the halt ordered by resolution, and the authorities have not applied the sanction imposed nor communicated with the Public Prosecutor's Office to report on the defiance.

The SEEM is currently analyzing the submission to determine its compliance with the requirements established in Article 17.8.2 of Chapter 17 of the U.S.-Panama TPA. If the submission complies with the admissibility requirements, the SEEM will continue with the corresponding procedure.

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