[2][3] Since the 17th century, efforts to control flooding in Mexico City have worked to drain the lake system.

This use of the lake was opposed by local people in 1983 and 1986 because of the dumping of wastewater, which led to compromises and infrastructure for irrigation.

[2][4] The lake is semi artificial as it is created and used as a water regulator, with much of its volume entering through several canals and other drainage, mostly from Mexico City.

The lake attracts weekend visitors despite the poor water quality because of the good climate and abundant local vegetation.

[5][6] The lake receives wastewater from various municipalities, much of it untreated, as well as tons of trash from Mexico City via the Santo Tomas Canal.

[4][5] State authorities have said that it would take at least 20 million pesos to clean the lake sufficiently for ecotourism as well as build facilities for visitors and reforestation efforts.

Wildlife includes rodents, opossums, coyotes, lizards, around the community of Zitlaltepec, there are wooded hills.

[1] Zumpango became a municipality in 1820 as part of the acceptance of the Cadiz Constitution, before the end of the Mexican War of Independence.

In 1861, the villages of Cuautlalpan, Xoloc, Reyes Acosac, and the Haciendas of San Juan de la Labor and of Santa Lucia were added to the municipality.

Further drainage projects were undertaken in the 20th century along with a rail line, which worked to develop the area’s economy through construction and maintenance.

[1] During the Mexican Revolution, Pedro Campa was Zumpango’s local revolutionary with a band of about three hundred men allied with the Liberation Army of the South.

After the war, local leader Wenceslao Labra García worked to establish commonly owned lands called ejidos in the area.

They were farmers and peasants, Spaniards founded 1 de Mayo colony in San Sebastian, worked in ranches and haciendas and others in Zumpango municipality commerce, they opened furnitures, bakeries, restaurants, stationeries and shoe shops.

In 1948, former railroad workshops were converted in a textile factory called La Hortensia, which prompted highway construction to replace the rail line and another drainage canal was built.

[8] Zumpango’s proximity and lake has spurred residential development, to make it one of the fastest growing municipalities in the metropolitan area.

[2][9][10] The municipality is expected to have 500,000 residents by 2015 as there is demand for about 113,000 new housing units per year in the area north of Mexico City.

[9] While the area is still relatively rural, the rush for construction has limited the amount of developable land and there are now requests to allow for apartment buildings of four floors and higher.

Although Zumpango is close to a number of employment centers, most transportation, public and private, is on crowded roads which lead to long and expensive commutes.

[1] Just over seventy percent of the land in the municipality is used for agriculture with the rest divided among residential areas, industrial zones and other uses.

[1] Developed by GIM, Town Center Zumpango opened in 2010 and includes a Walmart, Sam’s Club and Cinépolis movie theater.

Other businesses include Vips, Coppel, Banamex, Steren, USA shoes, Nutrisa, Telcel, Flexi and various eateries.

The primary school in the center of town was the headquarters for the construction of drainage projects for the Valley of Mexico.

These consist of various ingredients such as barbacoa, nopal cactus, tomatoes, cheese, cilantro, pork rinds, beans and more.

[1] The first sport practiced in Zumpango has been the charrería, when the Spanish first settled in this town, they were under orders to raise horses, but not to allow indigenous to ride.

The bullfighting are other entertainment, in this municipality has got bullring or plaza is named El Andaluz and its Spanish heritage of the Zumpango people.