Municipal authorities, private companies, and neighborhood volunteers joined forces to pull roughly 22 tons of waste from the Estero San José del Cabo State Ecological Reserve in a single-day cleanup effort. The operation brought together multiple city departments and local organizations to tackle trash and debris choking one of the most important wetlands in Los Cabos.
Participants included members of Grupo Questro, a Los Cabos hospitality and real estate company, along with the fitness group Tarzan Warriors and residents from surrounding neighborhoods. On the municipal side, the departments of Public Services, Environmental Management, and OOMSAPAS (the Los Cabos water and sanitation utility) all sent crews and equipment.
A Wetland Under Constant Pressure
The Estero San José del Cabo sits at the southern edge of the San José del Cabo hotel zone, where freshwater meets the Pacific Ocean at a sandy bar known as the bocana. The reserve was declared a Natural Protected Area in 1994 and serves as critical habitat for migratory and resident bird species, making it one of the region’s top birdwatching spots.
The estuary has faced repeated environmental threats. A 2024 investigation by Causa Natura Media found that the Fonatur wastewater treatment plant (PTAR) was discharging the equivalent of more than 10,000 tanks of 1,100 liters of treated wastewater daily into soil adjacent to the reserve. Those nutrient-rich discharges fueled the rapid spread of invasive water lily and water lettuce across the lagoon’s surface.
Part of a Larger Cleanup Pattern
This latest effort follows a series of increasingly large removal operations. In August 2025, crews extracted 32 tons of invasive weeds from the estuary. By February 2026, the General Directorate of Ecology and Environment of the XV City Council of Los Cabos reported removing more than 70 tons of invasive biomass in a separate operation focused on water lily and lettuce.
The recurring cleanups point to an ongoing cycle: nutrient pollution feeds invasive plant growth, which then requires costly manual removal. Conservation groups have called for sustained maintenance and upstream fixes to the wastewater discharge problem rather than periodic emergency extractions.
Visitors to the estuary are reminded that vehicles are prohibited inside the reserve. Dogs must be kept on leashes, and all trash must be carried out. Fireworks and inflammable materials are banned following a fire that damaged several acres of the reserve in January 2024.
The cleanup was first reported by the Los Cabos municipal government on its official website.