Puerto Vallarta’s landfill fire has now turned into an enforcement problem. PROEPA placed closure seals on part of El Gavilán, but the city says garbage trucks are still using a limited area while the burned section cools. Behind the smoke is a harder dispute over permits, paperwork, and how much room the city has to keep its waste system running without creating a new collection problem. The next few days will show how much of the landfill remains usable.
A Landfill Fire Exposes Puerto Vallarta’s Waste Problem
Jalisco’s environmental enforcement office has partially closed the El Gavilán landfill after the May 28 fire. The move leaves Puerto Vallarta with a tighter place to put its trash and a deeper dispute over whether the dump had a current state authorization.
PROEPA, the state environmental enforcement agency, delivered the measure Thursday, according to the reported account of the closure. Municipal Public Services Director Rodolfo Domínguez said he received the document. The city has five days to answer the observations raised by environmental inspectors.
The closure does not shut down the whole landfill. Garbage trucks are still depositing solid waste in a limited adjoining area because the burned section is still cooling and being smothered. That keeps the collection system moving. It also means the same site that must receive daily waste is now partly sealed by state inspectors.
What PROEPA closed
PROEPA’s own public guidance says a partial closure blocks an action considered irregular in a specific part of a property or process. A total closure stops all operations while irregularities are corrected.
That distinction is central here. The city can still send trash to El Gavilán, but not to the burned area under the closure seals. Domínguez said two active points remained at the site and put the response work at 95 percent complete. Once the fire is fully out, the city expects to cover the affected area with soil and may resume deposits there next week.
He also acknowledged that more machinery is needed to finish the work.
The landfill sits in the El Colorado area. It has already been under pressure from the fire, smoke, and environmental warnings that followed the burning of tires and solid waste. Earlier coverage detailed how toxic smoke spread over Puerto Vallarta and how crews worked into a second day before the response shifted into cooling and containment.
The licensing dispute did not cool down
The fire exposed another problem. State environmental officials have said El Gavilán lacked a current operating authorization after its permit expired on December 4, 2025. The municipality has pushed back. It says the renewal process began on time, and the city has met the legal requirements.
Javier Dueñas, subdirector of Servicios Eficientes Municipales, defended the city’s position this week.
“Of course, all the required paperwork is there, all the requirements the law asks of us,” Dueñas said. “We are investigating why she gave that statement, but we, as the city government, have everything in order.”
Dueñas also acknowledged that the city is responsible for renewing the authorization. He said the last formal approval was obtained in 2020 and ran until December 2025. “In December 2025, we would have had to begin the process. It began,” he said.
The unresolved point is whether the renewal was granted and signed by the state. When asked about that, Dueñas said the technical information belonged to the city’s Environmental Sustainability office, which handles the file. That answer left the central question open.
The federal NOM 083 standard, still listed as active in Mexico’s official catalog, covers the selection, design, construction, operation, monitoring, closure, and related works for final disposal sites for urban solid waste and special-handling waste. That is the rulebook behind the dry language of permits and inspections. Landfills are regulated infrastructure.
Smoke, schools, and an alert that lingered
The closure came after a fire that started the morning of May 28 and forced a large emergency response. The first concern was the tire area, where burning rubber produced a heavy plume.
Semadet Secretary Paula Bauchet Petersen said the state issued an atmospheric emergency on May 28 and lowered it to an atmospheric alert on May 29 as the fire response advanced. She said the alert remained active because smoke was still visible from the landfill.
“We issued an emergency on May 28 and moved it to an alert on May 29,” Bauchet Petersen said. “The alert continues.”
She said the impacts on the tire area and nearby forest and grassland were fully controlled by then, but the landfill itself was still producing smoke. About 100 forest fire personnel worked during the first two days, according to her account, before operational command was transferred to the municipality to continue cooling.
The same week, the city moved toward buying equipment for emergency crews after the El Gavilán response. A municipal proposal called for direct purchases of safety equipment, supplies, tools, accessories, and other items for personnel who worked in and around the landfill fire.
That proposal is another cost arriving after the flames.
What remains unanswered
The partial closure gives the municipality a deadline, but not a clean answer. The city has five days to respond to PROEPA’s observations. The available accounts do not include the full inspection record, the complete closure order, or a signed renewal that would settle the authorization dispute.
Puerto Vallarta’s waste system is still operating through a restricted workaround. The burned part of El Gavilán is cooling under state scrutiny. The rest of the site remains in use while the city argues that its paperwork is in order, even as the state signals otherwise.
