Protesters Halt Metalclad’s Mexican Operations

Metalclad Corp., a Newport Beach developer of industrial waste treatment plants, said it is putting its development projects in Mexico on hold because protesters have kept workers from doing their jobs.

“We’ve halted construction because we had 150 people show up at our front gate, forcing the construction people to get off their equipment and leave the premises,” spokesman Elgin B. Williams said.

The landfill and treatment facility in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes was two weeks from completion, he said. Metalclad has also suspended work on three other projects in Mexico.

Metalclad has hit other obstacles in trying to build waste-treatment facilities in Mexico.

In January 1997, the company became the first U.S. business to file an arbitration claim against the Mexican government under the North American Free Trade Agreement. In that dispute, the company contended that the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi illegally seized a $22-million hazardous-waste site that the company had developed there just as it was set to open in 1995.

That case is pending.

The company said the recent dispute could be resolved much more quickly. Public hearings have been scheduled for Friday and Monday on the Aguascalientes matter, Williams said.

Metalclad wants police protection for its workers. Williams said they were outnumbered 20 to 1 by protesters who began showing up at the site Sept. 24.

If the problem is resolved, workers could be back on the job by Tuesday, he said. If the conflict can’t be resolved, however, “we have to go through the courts again,” he said.

The company is continuing to operate a separate business in Mexico that recycles cleaning solvents, blends fuel and transports hazardous waste at 12 locations.