Statements like these frustrate Juan Bremmer, director general of ESSA, who oversees the company's existing salt-harvesting operation at the Ojo de Liebre lagoon near the town of Guerrero Negro, about 100 miles north of San Ignacio. Guerrero Negro produces 20,000 tons of salt a day, or 7.5 million tons a year, just what the company hopes to produce at San Ignacio. The town has half a dozen schools, a junior college, a hospital, soccer fields, a tennis court and several churches. And Guerrero Negro is good for the environment,'' he insists, pointing out osprey and peregrine falcons nesting on poles installed by ESSA to keep the birds high above the jaws of hungry coyotes. Other studies show that despite the noise of diesel engines and the obstruction of barges crisscrossing the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, gray whales have continued to migrate there in record numbers.
Environmentalists dispute the company's interpretation of the statistics.
ESSA has commissioned these studies for an environmental impact assessment that is expected to be released as soon as this month and will form the basis for the company's permit application. Among the findings, the company says, are that taking water from San Ignacio lagoon will not decrease the salinity or the temperature of the water and that leftover brine won't contaminate the sea if it's diluted before it's discharged. Conditions for crystallizing salt are rare in nature. Salt flats, sea water and warm perennial winds are needed in close proximity. At San Ignacio, the wind warms over desert before hitting the lagoon.