Mexico City, Mexico — The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has received an Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) for the Playa del Carmen to Tulum Section 5 of the Maya Train.
According to the MIA submitted, construction of the train will not create a “significant” environmental impact. The Institute of Ecology, dependent on the National Council of Science and Technology, presented the MIA earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the submitted MIA said “it can be inferred that there will be no significant net impacts on the diversity and abundance of fauna in the area of influence as in the region, that is, the project will not generate relevant effects on beta and range biodiversity.”
The MIA, which was published Wednesday in the Semarnat Ecological Gazette, indicates that the stretch is environmentally viable and that its potential impacts, which would occur during the construction stage, may be mitigated during the operation stage.
The statement also reported on impacts related to water, acknowledging “there are a large number of sinkholes, cenotes, karst microdomes, lagoons and floodplains, the latter with dimensions from meters to kilometers, presenting circular, elongated and irregular shapes.”
The MIA requests the local water balance be verified to minimize surface runoff, among other assessments.
“This assessment indicates the need to design and implement viable and effective strategies to prevent, mitigate and compensate for these impacts. According to the results of this evaluation on the water factor, the impacts are non-significant adverse.”
The MIA for section 5 was carried out and submitted after weeks of construction for that section of train had already been done.