[4] The company diked the shallow tidal flats around Ojo de Liebre lagoon, creating multiple artificial evaporating ponds, eventually covering an area of about 300 square miles (780 km2).

The resulting mineral salt is transported in large dumping trucks to Chaparrito Port near Guerrero Negro to be cleaned and loaded into barges.

[22] Jorge Humberto López Portillo, general director of ESSA from July 2013 to December 2014, was prosecuted for irregularities such as purchasing a new barge for US$27.2 million and signing 30-year contracts with Packsys for residual brine treatment, both actions taken without administrative committee authorization.

Avilés Rocha quit in January 2021, after it was found that he gave contracts to companies owned by his cousins and nephews, increased executive salaries above approved limits, signed off unjustified expenses and paid for services that were not provided.

[28] In 1994, seeking to increase its production output, ESSA proposed an expansion of its facilities into the nearby San Ignacio Lagoon which is part of El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, a whale and migratory bird sanctuary.

After Serge Dedina, founder of Wildcoast, exposed these plans, a opposition campaign was carried out by prominent intellectuals, artists, and several NGOs such as the Natural Resources Defense Council in the United States and the Group of 100 in Mexico.

[29] Poet and activist Homero Aridjis, leader of the Group of 100, denounced the potential impact of the project, such as salinity reduction due to the extraction of 462 million metric tons of water from the lagoon, affecting plant and animal life.

[33] The increased death of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) at Ojo de Liebre lagoon has been potentially linked to the dumping of bitterns by ESSA.