The Legal and Administrative Context of Environmental Policy in Mexico Cityi

Notes on the Commlsslon on Human Rlghts and Administrative Justlce under the 1992 Ghanalan Constltutlon

the water usage is 36,6 cubic meter per second of which only 1,6 cubic meter is recycled, 20 percent of Mexico City' s population does not dispose of piped drinlcing water and three million inhabitants do not dispose of a drain ag e system. Regarding the soil: there is the loss of 73 percent of its woodlands, and still hundreds of hectares are deforestated each year, the green areas per person aver ag es rount 2,7 square meters per person Last but not least the air pollution: it is estimated that the three million vehicles circulating daily through Mexico City's streets 6 account for 76 percent of all contaminants released in the atmosphere of Mexico City. 7 1be complexities of environmental issues facing the Mexican authorities are matched if not outdone by the convoluted governmental and legislative structures in place to deal with them. lt is the aim of this article to demonstrate that the fragmentation of legal authority to deal with environmental problems in Mexico effectively vitiates an adequate government response towards containing Jet alone solving environmental problems. For this purpose regard will first be had to the devel opm ent of the national Mexican legislation conceming the environment on Federal level. Next, the environmental legislation of Mexico City will be considered. Finally the consequences of the present fragmentation of legislative power regarding the environment will be contemplated.

Constitutional Framework
Mexico is a federal Republic, composed of States which are free and sovereign in all that concems their intemal govemment but united in a Federal District 14 In the Mexican govemment system the municipality stands a t the basis of the territorial division of the political and administrative organization. Each munici pa lity is administered by a council (Ayuntamiento) elected by direct popular vote. The councils are empowered to issue regulations, circulars and administrative orders for general compliance within their respective jurisdiction, see arts.  Although on the one hand the law intends to decentralize govemmental authority and to give the States and the municipalities their own responsibilities, on the other hand it still is the federal administration that holds the main authority. As stated in article 4 section 1 LGEEPA: "All matters of general extent regarding the nation or in the interest of the Federation belong to the competence of the Federation".
Article 5 demonstrates that "matters of general extent" cover a very wide area indeed, thus the Federal Authorities are competent in such diverging matters as: the formulation and directing of the general ecological policy; the formulation of the general ecological criteria which must be observed for the protection of natural areas and the marine and wild flora and fauna, for the use of natural resources, for the eco logical ordering of the territory and for the prevention and control of pollution of the water, air and soil; the prevention and control of environmental emergencies and contingencies, the regulation of activities that are considered highly dangerous to the environment, the creation and administration of protected natural areas, the protection of the atmosphere in zones or from sources that fall under the federal jurisdiction and so on.
According to art. 6 the States and municipalities are competent in local matters such as: the preservation of the ecological balance and the protection of the environment of property and territories that fall within the local jurisdiction, the regulation of activities that are not considered highly dangerous, the regulation and conservation of urban 29 Published D.O. 28-2-1988. parks, the prevention and control of atrnospheric pollution generated in zones or by sources that belong to the State or municipal jurisdiction30 and so on.
Tue fact that powers now have been more clearly demarcated than before, that is to say that at least the legislative void that existed is bridged by defining more clearlywhat the federal authorities are allowed to regulate, has enabled the Federal as weil as the State and munici pal authorities to start regulating diverse environmental problems.

lt must be noted that although it is the Ministry of Social Development that has the main authority regarding environmental affairs it is not the only ministry that occupies itself with this subject. The Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, and of Fishe
ries also participate in the exercise and above in all the application, operation and vigilance of norms related to specified environmental aspects such as protected natural areas, flora and fauna and waste waters.
Hence, it seems to be likely that the inherent existence of fragmentation and compartment alization at the uppermost administrative levels in combination with the specific Mexican discretionary style of decision-making will continue to produce bureaucratic infighting, duplication offunctions and policy incoherence and ineffectiveness.40

Mexlco Clty's Environmental Legal Framework: Laws and Instltutlons
As we shall see in the next sections, the above sketched problems regarding the scattered legal framework and institutional structures on national level all culminate on Mexico City's 7.770 square kilometers. other hand the federal SEDESOL is competent when it comes to the special dispositions of art 9.

The Federal District
When comparing th e different faculties as laid down in the comprehensive special disposi tions, as is done in the following scheme, it is worth noting that in most cases for the federal authorities the principal words are "to detennine and to expedite" and for the local authorities "to propose, apply, control and participate".

Air
-To prevent and control the atmospheric pollution in the Federal District generated by permanent sources (with the exception of mercantile establishments or public spectacles), and to participate, conform the A gr eement of Coordination which it concluded with the Federal District, in the prevention and control generated by movable sources which circulate through the territory of the Federal District; -To expedite the technical norms for the maximum permitted emission of atmo spheric pollutants by movable sources; -To determine, in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and lndustrial Development and of Energy, Mines and Parastatal lndustries the technology that will be applied to reduce polluting em issions from automotive vehicles; -To expedite the technical ecological norms, that must be incorporated in the official mexican norms, for products that are utilized as combustibles or energetics in the Federal District; -To establish and operate the monitoring network for atmospheric pollution in the Federal District.

Competences of the Department of the Federal Dlstrlct / The Assembly of Representatlves
Air -To prevent and control the atmospheric pollution in the Federal District generated by permanent sources, which function as mercantile establishments, public specta cles and by all classes of movable sources which circulate through its territory; -To establish and operate inspection systems, with relation to the atmospheric pollution, for the vehicle park in the Federal District and if necessry, to limit the circulation of vehicles which exceed the maximum Iimits as determined by SEDE SOL; -To take the necessary measures to reduce the level of emission generated by motor vehicles; -To control the compliance to the maxi mum permitted emission norms for the public transport.

Control and Sanctions
-To inspect, guard and impose sanctions within the sphere of their com petences.

Public Services
-To observe the technical ecological norms when delivering public services of sewering, cleaning, markets, cemetries, slaughterhouses, transit and local transport. Thus there remain !arge areas which the Assembly is not allowed to regulate, such as the norms for the discharge of waste water, the norms for the recollection and treatment of wa. �te and so on. Consequently it is the Federal Congress acting as local Congress that should expedite a general law for the protection of the environment for the Federal District, leaving to the Assembly of Representatives the authority to expedite further executive regulations of this law. However, the (few) regulatory faculties of the Assembly make it difficult for the Federal Congress to present an overall law, so till the present day there is no general environmental law for the Federal District and environmental issues are dis persed over a number of federal and local regulations.

TheMetropolitanZone
The