Controversy over construction of a massive export brewery in Baja California is stoking longstanding water-supply concerns in northern Mexico, drawing the attention in recent months of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the country’s courts.

Visiting the state in March, López Obrador promised to examine allegations that the project plans of U.S.-based Constellation Brands—maker of Corona, Pacífico and other popular beers—underestimate water use and overstate employment impact in the drought-parched, job-starved region. He made the pledge after opponents of the brewery, which is under construction near the state capital of Mexicali, confronted him on a March 26 visit to that city. Speaking later in the day in nearby San Luis Río Colorado, he said: “I’m going to send experts to do an investigation, and [we] will act according to what best suits the general interest… Before anything else come water, food, life.” So far, however, no such experts have been named.

The brewery debate pits water-strapped farmers, conservationists and many local residents against Constellation Brands and the outgoing administration of Baja California Governor Francisco “Kiko” Vega, which claim the brewery will bring jobs and development without depleting water supplies. It reflects growing concern about the water-resource demands of surging transnational beer production in Mexico, now the world’s largest beer exporter. Plans for the new Constellation Brands plant call initially for the production and export of 5 million hectoliters (132 million gallons) of beer annually, rising to 20 million hectoliters (528 million gallons) annually within four or five years.

Ivan Martínez, advisor to a citizens’ group seeking a plebiscite on the project, says the plant will be a “water maquiladora,” referring to foreign-owned border factories that tap Mexico’s relatively cheap labor and export their entire production. “It’s alarming that they come for our hydrological resources so they can export beer to the United States,” he says.

Declining to grant an interview for this article, Constellation Brands instead sent EcoAméricas a statement from company spokesman Michael McGrew. In it, McGrew says the brewery will provide permanent positions for “more than 500” local residents. He says the company aims to be “good stewards of natural resources,” but he does not address López Obrador’s pledge to review the project.

Critics argue that the water-short Mexicali Valley, whose economy hinges on agriculture, cannot afford a plant that will consume 3.8 to 4 liters of water for every liter of beer produced.

Report raises questions
That figure comes from a technical report prepared for Baja California authorities earlier this year by Alfonso Cortez, an environmental researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef), an institute that focuses on U.S.-Mexican border issues. In his report, Cortez highlights discrepancies in the environmental-impact study and other federal and company documents he studied. He cites three different estimates for permanent jobs to be created, with 600 the lowest and 1,419 the highest, and a lack of clarity on the plant’s water source.

Project opponents argue that the use of automation could dash employment hopes. They cite a Wall Street Journal video, posted online, showing how Constellation Brands has used automation to cut labor costs and boost production at its existing brewery near Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila.

As for water, the new brewery’s initial output will require about a half-billion gallons of water a year, rising to about two billion gallons annually when the plant is at full capacity, Cortez writes. His report says the latter level represents 7.9% of annual water use in Mexicali, a city of 800,000, and would be 381% greater than the combined annual consumption of seven other Mexicali plants whose owners include Coca Cola, Jumex and Honeywell and whose employees, collectively, number 10,000.

Cortez says he learned after finishing his report that the State Commission of Public Services of Mexicali (CESPM) and Constellation Brands had reached a confidential 50-year agreement under which CESPM would supply the brewery with water. “It surprised a lot of people,” he says of the agreement, which was not mentioned in the impact statement.

For his part, McGrew mentions no water accord in his statement, but does say the plant’s water will come from CESPM. He says Constellation Brands recycles and reuses “about two thirds” of water used to brew beer, adding: “An independent analysis conducted by the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA) indicates that our Mexicali brewery, once fully up and running, will pose no risk to local water supply and availability in the region.”

Diminishing supply
Cortez questions how much water can be recycled, and he raises concerns about the plant’s impact on regional supplies. Mexicali Valley water comes from two diminishing cross-border sources, the Colorado River and the Mexicali Aquifer, with pressure on both increasing from different quarters. Cortez says he estimates the brewery could speed the aquifer’s depletion rate to 0.8-1.05 meters annually from its current 0.6-0.8 meters a year.

Cortez’s report was commissioned by Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology (Conacyt) after the State Electoral Institute of Baja California (IEEBC) asked the federal agency to analyze Constellation Brands’ plan. The IEEBC made the request while weighing an 18,000-signature petition, organized by the anti-brewery group the Baja California Water Plebiscite Collective, calling for a binding, statewide plebiscite on the project. Whether such a vote will occur, however, is the subject of ongoing litigation in the courts.

The gubernatorial front-runner in the lead up to Baja California’s June 2 elections, Jaime Bonilla of President López Obrador’s governing party, has been quoted as saying there will be no Mexicali brewery if water supplies are insufficient. However, project opponents are skeptical, citing the allure of beer dollars and jobs—and likely federal government fears that blocking the project might subject Mexico to a costly arbitration claim by Constellation Brands. (See "Centerpiece"—this issue.)

Cortez says the clout of brewers and the water concerns their projects raise make the Constellation Brands project a difficult test case for López Obrador. Says Cortez: “The president is in a dilemma over who he will support... There is a lot of social pressure.”