906R92101
EPA Summary
Environmental Plan
for the
Mexican-U.S. Border Area
First Stage (1992-1994)
February 1992
-------
Contents
1. Executive Summary 2
2. Background 6
The Border Area 6
Physical Features 7
Population 7
Economy 8
Historical Environmental Cooperation 10
3. Current Conditions 11
General Environmental Concerns
in the Border Area 11
Wastewater Treatment 12
Hazardous Waste Disposal 12
Air Quality in Densely Populated Areas .... 12
Current Environmental Protection Efforts 13
Environmental Enforcement 13
International Wastewater Treatment 14
Nuevo Laredo/Laredo 14
Nogales/Nogales 14
Tijuana/San Diego 14
Hazardous Waste Programs 15
Improved Reporting of Transboundary
Shipments or Hazardous Wastes 15
Joint Training and Education 15
Emergency Preparedness and Response ... 15
Air Quality Protection 16
Projects Involving Other
Mexican-U.S. Agencies 17
4. The 1992-1994 Mexican-U.S. Border Plan ... 20
Goal and Objectives of the Plan 20
Strengthening Enforcement of Existing Laws.. 21
Cooperative Enforcement Workgroup 21
Enforcement Capacity Building 21
Enforcement Information Sharing 22
Cooperative Enforcement Actions 22
Reducing Pollution Through New Initiatives 22
Increase Wastewater Treatment 22
Strengthen Industrial
Wastewater Pretreatment Program 23
Protect Drinking Water Supplies 24
Initiate Multimedia Industrial Source Controls . 24
Improve Disposal of Solid and Hazardous
Wastes 24
Set Aside Land in Mexico for Low-Income
Housing 25
Improve Air Quality 25
Promote Pollution Prevention Borderwide 26
New Pollution Prevention Workgroup 26
Border Area Pollution Prevention Initiatives . 27
Technical Assistance for Pollution Prevention 27
Increasing Cooperative Planning,
Training and Education 28
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Personnel 28
Government Officials 29
The Private Sector 29
The Public 29
Improving Understanding
of the Border Environment
30
30
Waste-Related Studies
Ground Water and Surface Water
Monitoring Programs 30
Pesticide Information Exchange 30
Comparative Risk Assessment 31
Periodic Reports on Border
Environmental Quality 31
Public Participation 31
Funding 32
-------
President George Bush
The White House
Dear President Bush,
At your meeting with President Salinas de Gortari of Mexico in November 1990, you
and President Salinas instructed U.S. and Mexican environmental authorities to
cooperate in preparing a comprehensive plan to protect the environment along the
Mexican-U.S. border. Since then, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
Mexico's Secretaria de Desarrollo Urbano y Ecologia (SEDUE) have been working
together with the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and our
foreign ministries to characterize our shared environmental challenges and define the
cooperative steps we could take to meet them. Today I am presenting to you the
product of our cooperation.
The people who live along the Mexican-U.S. border today face serious environmental
problems, especially the health-related risks that result from inadequate wastewater
treatment and unsafe drinking water. This plan summarizes specific actions that SEDUE
and EPA intend to take over the next three years (1992-1994) to address environmental
problems already evident in the border area. Over the next year alone, the two agencies
propose to invest approximately $230 million in water-related construction projects to
enhance the quality of the border environment.
At the same time, we intend to improve our understanding of the border
environment so that we can refine and redirect our bilateral environmental protection
efforts in the second stage of this plan (1995-2000). In particular, we will reassess this
plan over the next three years in light of any environmental effects resulting from a
prospective North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I want to emphasize,
however, that SEDUE and EPA intend to go forward with this plan regardless of the
outcome of NAFTA negotiations.
Mexico and the United States share a century-long history of environmental
cooperation along the border. This plan builds on that history. For example, several
elements of this plan will continue and expand on work already underway as a result of
the 1983 Border Environmental Agreement between our two countries.
SEDUE and EPA are not alone in their efforts to protect the environment along the
border. Other federal agencies in both countries, working by themselves or bilaterally,
are carrying out programs to protect various aspects of the border environment. In this
country, the General Services Administration, the Department of State, and the
Department of Agriculture in particular are targeting substantial resources to
environment-related projects along the border.
State and local governments also are playing important roles, as are individuals,
families, private businesses, and non-government organizations. In the preparation of
this plan, SEDUE and EPA held public hearings on both sides of the border, and we
received written comments from hundreds of individuals and organizations with a
strong interest in the border environment. Their ideas and comments are reflected in
this plan.
The environmental cooperation described in this plan marks the beginning of a new
era in Mexican-U.S. relations, and a new stage in the evolution of international
environmental policy. This plan is based on a fundamental belief that economic and
environmental issues are intertwined: long-term economic growth is not possible
without environmental protection, and long-term environmental protection is not
possible without economic growth. Mexico and the United States both face an enormous
challenge as we work together to balance those related goals. The plan EPA and SEDUE
are presenting to you and President Salinas will help us meet that challenge.
' Respectfully,
William K. Reilly
Administrator, U.S. EPA
-------
Executive
Summary
On November 27, 1990, the Presidents of
Mexico and the United States met in
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, to discuss a
range of issues affecting the two countries. Of
particular importance were questions of
international trade. Both Presidents recognized
that the liberalization of trade between the
two countries is vitally important to the future
economic health of both Mexico and the
United States. Consequently, in Monterrey
both Presidents reaffirmed their commitment
to a free trade agreement that would reduce
barriers to the flow of goods and services
across the Mexican-U.S. border.
While a free trade agreement would bring
extensive economic benefits to people living in
both countries, both Presidents realized it
could have environmental consequences as
well. Over the past decade hundreds of
thousands of people have been drawn to cities
on both sides of the border in search of better
jobs and a higher standard of living. The
industrial base has expanded sharply,
particularly on the Mexican side of the border.
Growing populations and expanding
industries along the Mexican-U.S. border
already are posing an environmental challenge
to both countries, and that challenge will
intensify unless met by a comprehensive
environmental protection program supported
by the two countries.
At the same time, the economic benefits of
free trade offer both nations their best hope
for generating the economic resources needed
to protect the border environment. New jobs
expand the tax base, thus providing the
capital needed for municipal services like
paved roads, safe drinking water, and
wastewater treatment. Successful businesses
are better prepared to invest the capital and
technical skills needed to manage their wastes
in environmentally responsible ways.
The challenge thus facing Mexico and the
United States is not simply to nurture
flourishing, mutually-beneficial trade, but to
reap the economic benefits of free trade in
ways that are environmentally sustainable. To
this end, the Presidents of Mexico and the
United States emphasized in their Monterrey
meeting the need for ongoing environmental
cooperation. In particular, they "instructed the
authorities responsible for environmental
affairs in their countries to prepare a
comprehensive plan designed to periodically
examine ways and means to reinforce border
cooperation... with a view to solving the
-------
problems of air, soil, and water quality and of
hazardous wastes."
This plan presents the first stage of a
binational border environmental protection
program. It has been prepared jointly by
Mexico's Secretaria de Desarrollo Urbano y
Ecologia (SEDUE) and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and it will be
implemented jointly as well.
SEDUE and EPA have taken care to build
this plan on the very strong base of
environmental cooperation that has existed
between the two countries for many years,
and especially since 1983, when the United
States and Mexico signed a Border
Environmental Agreement broadly expanding
their cooperative efforts. The two agencies
already are involved in several joint
environmental projects in the border area, and
the plan presented here complements and
expands on those efforts. In addition, this
plan benefits from the long history of
Mexican-U.S. cooperation through the
binational International Boundary and Water
Commission (IBWC), which for almost 50
years has been responsible for bilateral water
sanitation projects along the border.
In its first stage (1992-1994), this plan
intends to address the most serious
environmental problems now existing or
emerging in the border area. Those problems
have been defined through the collective
expertise and professional judgment of SEDUE
and EPA, IBWC, and border state government
officials.
At the same time, SEDUE and EPA
recognize that current understanding of
environmental conditions along the border is
incomplete. Moreover, those conditions may
change if a North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) is ratified. Consequently,
this plan should not be considered final or
complete; rather, it is a work in progress. It
will be reexamined by the end of 1994, and in
the second stage of this plan (1995-2000)
binational environmental protection efforts
will be refined and redirected in light of
improved understanding of the border
environment and the possible environmental
effects of a free trade agreement.
SEDUE and EPA intend to achieve the goals
of this plan by targeting their initial efforts on
the most serious existing problems.
Because most of the border area's
population and industrial facilities is
concentrated in pairs of Mexican and U.S.
"sister" cities located across the border from
each other, most of the bilateral environmental
protection efforts outlined in the first stage of
this plan will be carried out in those cities.
In order to implement this plan, Mexico has
committed to investing at least $460 million
over the next three years in environmental
projects in Mexican border cities, and $147
million is earmarked for projects in 1992.
President Bush's FY 1993 budget request for
EPA includes $179 million for border-area
environmental protection, including $170
million for wastewater treatment projects.
Funds for environment-related projects in the
border area also have been requested in the
proposed FY 1993 budgets for the U.S.
Departments of State, Agriculture, and Health
and Human Services, and the U.S.
Export-Import Bank. If the President's budget
request is approved, the U.S. government is
committed to spending more than $240 million
protecting the border area environment in
1993.
Even though this plan has been prepared by
SEDUE and EPA, its success will depend on
the efforts of many people. Everyone who
lives and works in the border area contributes
to environmental pollution; everyone
who lives and works in the border area
must be involved in its protection. Border
state and local governments, businesses and
trade associations, the binational International
Boundary and Water Commission,
non-government organizations, and
educational institutions all have important
roles to play.
This plan is comprehensive in the sense that
it seeks to protect water, air, and land by
marshalling the resources of both the public
and private sectors. Although its initial goal is
to address those environmental problems
already apparent in the border area, over the
long term it is intended to protect the border
environment not only from existing sources of
pollution, but also from those sources likely to
be attracted to the border area in the future.
The single most noteworthy aspect of this
plan is the spirit of cross-border cooperation
that infuses it. And that cooperative spirit
underlies the firm belief — held by both
SEDUE and EPA — that this plan is helping
both Mexico and the United States achieve an
important common goal: the long-term
protection of human health and natural
ecosystems in the border area.
-------
Strengthen Enforcement
of Existing Laws
Reduce Pollution
Through New Initiatives
Environmental
Plan for the
Mexican-U.S.
Border Area
First Stage (1992-1994)
Goaf
To provide for the long-term
protection of human health
and natural ecosystems along
the border between Mexico
and the United States
Objectives
• Strengthen enforcement of
existing laws
» Reduce pollution through
new initiatives
• Increase cooperative
planning, training, and
education
• Improve understanding of
the border environment
• Increase the number of Mexican
border environmental inspectors
— Increase SEDUE's border operational
budget
— Equip SEDUE border workstations
with computers and data banks
• Establish new Cooperative
Enforcement Strategy Workgroup
• Build enforcement capacity
— Expand cooperative training visits to
facilities on both sides of the border
— Conduct bilateral workshops,
seminars, field exercises, and
personnel exchanges
• Exchange enforcement information
— Develop computerized database on
regulated facilities and the
transborder movement of hazardous
wastes
• Cooperate on enforcement actions in
agreed-upon priority areas
• Increase wastewater treatment
— Complete 9 million gallon per day
expansion in Nogales/Nogales, and
begin next phase of Nogales
expansion
— Substantially complete 25 million
gallon per day international system
Tijuana/San Diego
— Complete improvements in San
Diego's wastewater treatment syster
— Complete 31 million gallon per day
system in Nuevo Laredo/Laredo
— Begin construction or expand
wastewater collection and treatment
systems in Matamoros, Reynosa,
Piedras Negras, Ciudad Juarez, San
Luis Rio Colorado, and Mexicali
— Construct wastewater treatment
systems and hook-ups in U.S.
colonias
• Strengthen industrial wastewater
pretreatment program
— Require pretreatment before industr
facility hook-ups to international
wastewater treatment systems
— Monitor and characterize effluent
entering treatment facilities
• Protect drinking water supplies
— Inventory water sources, quality, an
treatment processes at existing
drinking water facilities
— Determine priorities for drinking
water protection
— Construct drinking water systems ir
U.S. colonias
• Initiate multi-media industrial sourc
controls to reduce air, water, and lai
pollution
— Collect data on toxic releases from
industrial facilities in Ciudad Juarez
and Tijuana
— Target enforcement actions and
pollution prevention programs in
Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana
-------
Increase
Cooperative Planning,
Training, and Education
Improve Understanding
of the Border
Environment
• Improve disposal of solid and
hazardous wastes
— Purchase equipment and/or construct
landfills in Matamoros, Reynosa,
Nuevo Laredo, Piedras Negras,
Ciudad Juarez, Nogales, and San Luis
Rio Colorado
— Improve detection and reporting of
illegal transboundary shipments of
hazardous wastes
• Set aside land in Mexico for
low-income housing
• Improve air quality
— Improve roads, bridges, and traffic
circulation in Mexican border cities
— Establish credit lines for public/private
transportation ventures in Mexico
— Complete air emissions inventory for
the Ciudad Juarez/El Paso airshed
— Implement air quality monitoring
programs and prepare emissions
inventiories for the Mexicali/Calexico
and Tijuana/San Diego airsheds
— Prepare bilateral air quality control
strategies for the Ciudad Juarez/El
Paso, Mexicali/Calexico, and
Tijuana/San Diego airsheds
• Promote pollution prevention
borderwide
— Establish new Pollution Prevention
Workgroup under the 1983
Mexican-U.S. Border Environmental
Agreement
— Implement border area pollution
prevention initiatives modeled on
EPA's 33/50 Project
• Provide technical assistance for
pollution prevention
— Training programs for the private
sector
— Computer-based hook-ups to
international technology information
clearinghouse
— University-based research and
education centers
— Model demonstration projects in local
communities
• For emergency preparedness and
response personnel
— Improve and test contingency plans
already being developed in
Matamoros/Brownsville,
Mexicali/Calexico, and Tijuana/San
Diego
— Develop a detailed schedule for
contingency planning in 11 other
pairs of sister cities
— Make public more complete
information on the kinds, use, and
movement of hazardous chemicals in
the border area
— Foster local action groups to
coordinate transborder planning,
prevention, and response
— Assure that an effective hazardous
release notification system is in place
in all sister cities
— Expedite transborder notification and
movement of emergency vehicles and
personnel
— Establish an emergency response loan
fund for Mexican border cities
• For government officials
— Expand training of environmental
enforcement personnel
— Improve safety and prompt movement
of hazardous materials through
border crossings
• For the private sector
— Develop training and education
programs on waste-handling for
commercial and industrial sources of
waste
— Publicize and update regulatory
requirements for the handling and
disposal of hazardous wastes
• For the public
— Develop bilingual environmental
education materials to be distributed
to local schools
— Encourage the international exchange
of teachers
— Develop and distribute bilingual
public service messages on
environmental issues
• Develop an inventory of legal and
illegal waste disposal sites, and
project future capacity needs for legal
disposal
• Determine the number, locations, and
types of new solid waste disposal
facilities needed in the border area
• Compile an inventory of shared water
resources, assess future demand on
those resources, and establish
area-wide monitoring programs to
define ground water and surface water
quality
• Exchange information on the analysis,
proper use, and control of pesticides
in the border area
• Prepare a comparative risk assessment
that guides future environmental
protection efforts
• Prepare periodic reports on
environmental quality in the border
area
-------
Background
Figure 1
Mexican-U.S. Border Area
The
Border Area
The border between Mexico and the
United States separates two independent,
sovereign nations with distinctive histories
and unique cultures. Although they are
neighbors sharing one of the world's longest
borders, the two countries differ markedly in
terms of language, culture, climate, political
systems, and degrees of economic
development.
Yet in the border area, defined in the 1983
Border Environmental Agreement as the zone
within 100 kilometers, or 65 miles, on either
side of the political boundary, those
differences are blurred. Many of the people
who live there speak both English and
Spanish. The overall economy of the area is
intertwined; thousands of people travel across
the border each day between their homes and
their jobs. In fact, over 200 million people
cross into the United States from Mexico each
year, making the Mexican-U.S. border the
most frequently crossed border in the world.
From an environmental perspective, the
border area is undivided. Several rivers,
including the Santa Cruz, Rio Grande, San
Pedro, Colorado, Tijuana, and New Rivers,
flow along and across the border. Three major
San Diego1
Tijuana'
ARIZONA NEW MEXICO
UNITED STATES
.Brownsville
Matamoro;
-------
desert regions (the Sonora, Mojave, and
Chihuahua Deserts) with their unique
ecosystems lie on both sides of the border.
Groundwater aquifers that provide essential
water resources for both human consumption
and agricultural use underlie both sides of the
border. The cities that face each other across
the border share common airsheds and
drainage basins.
Even though the border area is divided into
different political units, including two
countries, six Mexican states, and four U.S.
states, it is — from many perspectives,
including the environmental — an undivided
area. And it will require an integrated and
coordinated approach to protect its future
environmental quality and its future quality of
life.
Physical Features
The political border that separates Mexico and
the United States stretches nearly 3200
kilometers, or about 2000 miles, between the
Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. For
roughly half its distance, the border coincides
with the beds of the Rio Grande and the
Colorado River; for its other half, the border is
unrelated to topography, marked only by
signs at the formal border crossings. (See
Figure 1.)
On either side of the border, the climate
and physical features of the land are similar.
With the notable exception of the lower Rio
Grande Valley, most of the border passes
through high-altitude deserts populated by
drought-resistant species of plants and
animals. Temperatures in the border area can
vary greatly, depending on the time of day,
season, and geography.
Population
Because of the rigors of the land and climate,
most of the border area is sparsely populated.
More than 9.5 million people live in the
250,000 square mile border area, or about 40
people per square mile.
However, the population is not distributed
evenly throughout the area. A large
percentage of the population lives in or near
pairs of sister cities located across the border
from each other. Approximately 9.2 million
people live in fourteen pairs of sister cities:
Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville,
Texas; Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and McAllen,
Texas; Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and
Laredo, Texas; Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and
Eagle Pass, Texas; Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila,
and Del Rio, Texas; Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and
Presidio, Texas; Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua,
and El Paso, Texas; Las Palomas, Chihuahua,
and Columbus, New Mexico; Agua Prieta,
Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona; Naco, Sonora,
and Naco, Arizona; Nogales, Sonora, and
Nogales, Arizona; San Luis Rio Colorado,
Sonora, and Yuma, Arizona; Mexicali, Baja
California, and Calexico, California; and
Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego,
California. (See Table 1.) About 72 percent of
the U.S. border population live in those 14
U.S. cities.
Table 1
Populations of Border Sister Cities
1990
Metropolitan Area City
Tijuana, Baja California 742,686
San Diego, California 2,498,016
Mexicali, Baja California 602,390
Calexico, California 109,303
San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora 111,508
Yuma, Arizona 106,895
Nogales, Sonora 107,119
Nogales, Arizona 29,676
Agua Prieta, Sonora 39,045
Douglas, Arizona 97,624
Naco, Sonora 4,636
Naco, Arizona 97,624
Las Palomas, Chihuahua 16,565
Columbus, New Mexico 18,110
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua 797,679
El Paso, Texas 591,610
Ojinaga, Chihuahua 23,947
Presidio, Texas 6,637
Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila 56,750
Del Rio, Texas 138,721
Piedras Negras, Coahuila 98,177
Eagle Pass, Texas 36,378
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas 219,468
Laredo, Texas 133,239
Reynosa, Tamaulipas 376,676
McAllen, Texas 383,545
Matamoros, Tamaulipas 303,392
Brownsville, Texas 260,120
Mexican Total 3,500,038
U.S. Total 5,722,694
TOTAL 9,222,732
688,690
1,110,549
438,303
18,633
105,933
54,923
102,124
19,489
32,778
17,324
3,906
675
2,500
641
787,788
515,342
20,972
3,072
52,983
30,705
96,178
20,651
218,413
122,899
332,755
84,021
266,055
98,962
3,149,378
2,070,886
5,220,264
-------
Economy
Historically, the economy of the border area
has been dominated by mining and
agriculture. The area is rich in copper, gold,
silver, lead, phosphate, and manganese.
Despite an annual average rainfall of only 11
inches per year, the land continues to support
cattle and sheep ranches and farms producing
fodder crops, wheat, maize, and millet. Due
to widespread irrigation in fertile areas, large
quantities of fruits and vegetables destined for
both Mexican and U.S. markets are grown and
processed along the border.
During the past 25 years, however, the
economy of the area has become more
industrialized. Particularly on the Mexican
side of the border, the manufacturing sector
has grown rapidly.
In 1965 the Mexican government established
a border industrialization plan to attract labor-
intensive industries to Mexico. Under this
plan, industries based outside Mexico are
permitted to bring capital equipment,
components, and raw materials into Mexico
without paying import duties. The materials
are assembled by Mexico-based industries
known as maquiladoras. The finished
products then are exported to foreign markets,
and, in most instances, duties are paid only
on the value added in Mexico.
Since 1965 approximately 2000 maquiladora
plants employing over 400,000 people have
been established in Mexico. Maquiladoras are
now the second-largest source of foreign
exchange for Mexico.
About 75 percent of maquiladoras are
located in the border area. As of November
1991, the 1700 maquiladoras in the border area
employed approximately 380,000 people. (See
Table 2.) Approximately 56 percent of the
border maquiladoras are located in the two
Mexican cities of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana,
and maquiladoras in those two cities employ
just over half of the border-area maquiladora
workforce.
About 43 percent of the border-area
maquiladoras manufacture electronic
equipment, materials, and supplies. The rest
produce a variety of petroleum, metal,
transportation, medical, and other
miscellaneous products. (See Figure 2.)
The industrial sector is an important part of
the economy on the U.S. side of the border as
well. EPA collects data on U.S. industrial
facilities that process toxic chemicals (25,000
pounds or more per year) or use toxic
chemicals (10,000 pounds or more per year)
and that employ 10 or more employees. In
1989 145 such industrial facilities were located
on the U.S. side of the border area, and in
1989 those facilities released about 32.5 million
tons of toxic chemicals to the air, water, or
land. (See Table 3.) Like the industrial facilities
on the Mexican side of the border, U.S.
facilities produce a variety of different
products. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2
Products of Mexican and U.S. Border Industries
U.S. Border Industry (1989)
Mexican Border Industry (1991)
Electronic/Electric Materials
& Supplies
23%
Metal Industries
16%
Petroleum, Petroleum Products,
Plastics, Chemicals
20%
Transportation Equipment
& Supplies
Other
ood and%Manufactured Products
Agricultural
8°X
Clothing and other
Textiles 1%
Services 2%
Electronic/Electric Materials & Supplies
34%
Transportation Equipment
& Supplies
Electronic/Electric
Equipment/Apparatus
Petroleum, Petroleum Products,
Plastics, Chemicals
Medical
Supplies
5%
llothing and other
Food and Toextlles
Agricultural 2%
5%
-------
Table 2
Number and Employment
of Maquiladoras
November 1991
Border Cities Number of
(within 100km.) Maquiladoras
Tijuana
Ciudad Juarez
Mexicali
Matamoros
Teeate
Nuevo Laredo
Nogales
Reynosa
Piedras Negras
Ciudad Acuna
Ensenada
Agua Prieta
San Luis Rio Colorado
Naco
Palomas
656
321
122
94
110
93
75
82
37
46
44
27
23
4
5
Number of
Employees
70,262
134,838
19,400
38,268
5,934
21,000
21,084
30,000
7,182
14,261
5,706
7,500
3,000
1,200
137
TOTAL
1,739 379,772
Table 3
U.S. Industrial Facilities and Toxic Releases in the U.S. Border Area (millions of pounds)
State Number of
and facilities
County
Arizona
Pima
Yuma
State Total
California
Imperial
San Diego
State Total
New Mexico
Dona Ana
Hidalgo
State Total
Texas
Cameron
El Paso
Hidalgo
Webb
State Total
ALL
25
2
27
2
74
76
1
1
2
9
24
6
1
40
145
Fugitive or
non-point
emissions
666,120
0
666,120
31,505
1,663,023
1,694,528
35
6,900
6,935
218,150
790,421
39,375
1,500
1,049,466
3,417,029
Stack or Discharges
point air to water
emissions
218,764
49,525
268,289
1,750
4,203,664
4,205,414
0
487,250
487,250
95,709
695,722
113,560
17,000
921,991
5,882,944
0
0
0
0
1,000
1,000
0
0
0
250
0
0
250
500
1,500
Releases Discharges
to Land ioPOTW
8,398
0
8,398
0
1,000
1,000
0
20,353,549
20,353,549
3,238
23,350
0
750
27,338
20,390,285
9,243
0
9,243
0
650,678
650,678
0
0
0
41
273,304
250
0
273,595
933,516
Transfers to
other off-site
locations
407,288
1,849
409,137
0
394,875
394,875
0
0
0
953,988
180,949
16,343
0
1,151,280
1,955,292
Total
Releases/
Transfers
1,309,813
51,374
1,361,187
33,255
6,914,240
6,947,495
35
20,847,699
20,847,734
1,271,376
1,963,746
169,528
19,500
3,424,150
32,580,566
-------
Historical
Environmental
Cooperation
The United States and Mexico have long
recognized their shared interests in the border
environment. In fact, the two countries have
been involved in formal cooperative efforts
related to the use of the border's waters for
almost one hundred years.
During the 19th century, the Rio Grande
and Colorado River periodically changed
course, causing uncertainty in both countries
as to the precise location of the border. In
response, Mexico and the United States signed
a convention in 1889 creating the International
Boundary Commission, consisting of a
Mexican and a U.S. Section, to resolve
boundary location issues related to
movements of the Rio Grande and Colorado
River.
In 1944 the two countries agreed by treaty
to create a new International Boundary and
Water Commission (IBWC), extend its
authority to the land boundary, and give it
lead responsibility for border water sanitation
projects mutually agreed to by both countries.
Consequently, in addition to its other duties,
the IBWC currently is involved in the
planning, construction, operation, and
maintenance of several wastewater treatment
plants in the border area. (See Chapter 3 of
this plan.)
In 1983 joint Mexican-U.S. environmental
activities in the border area were formalized
with the signing of a comprehensive Border
Environmental Agreement. This agreement
denned the border area as a 100-kilometer
wide zone on either side of the political
boundary, and it established a general
framework in which both countries agreed to
prevent, reduce, and eliminate sources of air,
water, and land pollution.
In particular, the 1983 agreement outlined
procedures for establishing technical annexes
under which specific projects are carried out.
Five annexes are currently in force:
• Annex I: Provides for the construction and
operation of Tijuana/San Diego wastewater
treatment facilities.
• Annex II: Authorizes the establishment of
the Inland Joint Response Team (JRT) to
respond to accidental spills of oil and
hazardous substances in the border area.
• Annex III: Establishes procedures governing
the transboundary shipment of hazardous
wastes and hazardous substances.
• Annex IV: Requires copper smelters in the
border area to comply with certain emissions
limits.
• Annex V: Provides for an assessment of the
causes of, and solutions to, air quality
problems in sister cities in the border area.
Four binational work groups have been
working since 1983 to implement the terms of
the agreement and its technical annexes.
Those four work groups, which address air,
water, hazardous waste, and emergency
response issues, currently are involved in a
number of projects in the border area. (See
Chapter 3 of this plan.) When the Presidents of
Mexico and the United States directed SEDUE
and EPA to develop this plan, they explicitly
noted that it was to be based on the work
already being carried out under the 1983
Border Environmental Agreement.
10
-------
Current
Conditions
General Environmental
Concerns in the
Border Area
At this time the most serious environmental
concerns along the border are related to the
concentrations of people and industry in the
large — and growing — sister cities.
Congestion, uncontrolled urban development,
and lack of basic public health and sanitation
facilities have become significant problems in
many communities on both sides of the
border.
On the Mexican side, tens of thousands of
families attracted to the border area by job
opportunities in the maquiladoras are
straining existing road, drinking water, and
wastewater treatment systems. In some places
with high population densities, centralized
wastewater collection and treatment systems
have never been built. The lack of land
available for housing, together with
unplanned land use, have resulted in the
growth of settlements which lack basic
services such as public transportation and
solid waste disposal. In addition, the
hazardous wastes generated by the
maquiladoras have caused widespread concern
on both sides of the border, because little is
known about the kinds, quantities, or disposal
of such wastes.
At many places on the U.S. side of the
border, unincorporated communities, called
colonias, have sprung up adjacent to towns
and cities. These colonias, which are the
homes of over 200,000 people in Texas and
New Mexico alone, are characterized by
substandard housing, inadequate roads and
drainage, and barely adequate water and
sewer systems,'if such systems exist at all. For
example, less than one percent of Texas
colonias, and about 7 percent of New Mexico
colonias, are served by wastewater treatment
systems.
11
-------
Wastewater Treatment
For the past decade wastewater treatment
capacity along the Mexican-U.S. border has
been overloaded. In many places no collection
or treatment facilities exist at all.
Consequently, untreated or inadequately
treated wastewater has been discharged from
communities in the border area into rivers,
canals, arroyos, the Gulf of Mexico, and the
Pacific Ocean. These discharges have
contributed to ecological and esthetic
degradation, economic losses, and threats to
human health.
For example, a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) stretch
of beach north of the international border at
Tijuana/San Diego has been under a public
health quarantine since 1980. The quarantine
was extended to a 10-kilometer (6-mile) area in
1983 and 1985, when unusual currents carried
wastewater further north. Aquatic ecosystems
in the Tijuana estuary also have been
threatened by high concentrations of human
wastes.
In the Nogales area, surface water and
shallow drinking water wells have been
contaminated with pathogenic
microorganisms. In the Nuevo Laredo/Laredo
area, 27 million gallons per day (MGD) of
untreated wastewater are being discharged
directly into the Rio Grande, while treated
wastewater fails to meet environmental
standards. Thus the value of the Rio Grande
as a water supply source has been eroded.
Hazardous Waste Disposal
At this time little is known about the
disposition of hazardous wastes in the border
area. Yet, because of unique circumstances
along the border, the transportation and
disposal of hazardous wastes in that area are
of serious concern to both Mexico and the
United States.
Under the terms of Mexico's maquiladora
policy and Annex III to the 1983 Border
Environmental Agreement, any wastes
generated from the raw materials transported
from the United States to maquiladoras in
Mexico must be transported back to the
United States or, in some circumstances,
recycled in Mexico. Although approximately
2,000 maquiladora facilities now operate in
Mexico, little is known about the raw
materials shipped in or the wastes shipped
out. Because a comprehensive tracking system
does not exist, the possible mismanagement of
hazardous wastes is an issue on both sides of
the border. Furthermore, the shipping of
hazardous materials back and forth through
congested border crossings causes public
safety concerns, even when the material is
being transported legally.
The likelihood of illegal transboundary
transportation and disposal of hazardous
wastes causes additional concern. In the past
five years, SEDUE and EPA have uncovered
several instances of illegal transport and
storage of U.S. hazardous wastes in Mexico,
but the overall extent of such illegal activity is
not known.
Air Quality in Densely Populated Areas
The densely-populated sister cities of the
border area are subject to many of the air
quality problems typical of congested urban
areas. For example, extensive truck and
automobile traffic contribute to high
concentrations of nitrogen oxides, carbon
monoxide, and ozone-forming hydrocarbons.
Industrial facilities are the source of a range of
air pollutants, some of which are toxic.
However, air quality in the border area is
affected by several unique factors. Agricultural
activities together with strong winds blowing
over desert soils contribute to high particulate
concentrations. Since few streets in the
unplanned, rapidly growing settlements on
both sides of the border are paved, vehicle
traffic contributes to the particulate problem as
well. Urban traffic congestion is especially
detrimental to air quality in the border area
because many of the vehicles are old, and
they have no emissions control systems, or
those systems no longer function adequately.
Moreover, the sister cities are heavily-travelled
border crossings, and the long lines of idling
vehicles common at the crossing points add to
the air pollution.
Many people in the border area heat their
homes at night with wood- or refuse-burning
stoves, which emit particulates, carbon
12
-------
monoxide, and toxic air pollutants. Toxic
pollutants also are emitted by the small brick
and tile kilns common in many Mexican cities,
because those kilns often are fired by waste
materials such as used tires. On the Mexican
side of the border, the open burning of solid
wastes contributes to air quality problems in
some urban airsheds.
It is difficult to quantify the extent to which
these different sources are contributing to air
pollution in specific cities, or the extent to
which air pollution is threatening human
health or sensitive ecological systems.
Although emissions inventories have been
developed for several cities on the U.S. side of
the border, few emissions source data are
available for the Mexican side.
Similarly, air quality data in cities on the
U.S. side of the border have been collected for
many years, while ambient air quality
monitoring is just beginning in Mexican cities.
At this time limited ambient air quality data
are available only for Ciudad Juarez, and
monitoring is just beginning in Tijuana.
Current
Environmental Protection
Efforts
The Mexican and U.S. governments have been
working for several years on a range of
environmental projects in the border area.
Some of those projects are unilateral, and
some have been initiated by joint SEDUE/EPA
workgroups under the terms of the 1983
Border Environmental Agreement. In addition,
other federal agencies of the two governments
are working under different legal authorities
to protect human health and ecological
resources in the border area. State and local
governments, the private sector, and
non-government organizations also are
applying their own resources to address
environmental problems in particular
locations.
Environmental Enforcement
Over the past several years, both SEDUE and
EPA have strengthened their enforcement
capabilities in the border area. For example,
SEDUE recently added 50 new environmental
inspectors along the border, and the number
of Mexican facilities cited, fined, or shut down
by SEDUE for environmental violations has
increased substantially. Within the past six
months, 70 facilities on the Mexican side of
the border have been shut down for varying
periods of time for environmental violations.
Most were cited for violations of air pollution
control laws or for the improper handling and
storage of hazardous substances.
EPA has worked closely with U.S. Customs
since 1986 to monitor the movement of
hazardous wastes across the border. During
that time EPA has trained over 500 customs
officers to help them recognize hazardous
waste shipments, determine whether required
paperwork is complete, and process
shipments safely. In order to identify illegal
shipments of hazardous wastes, EPA and U.S.
Customs also have conducted several 24-hour
spot checks of every shipment entering or
leaving the United States. EPA has taken
enforcement action against several companies
that have violated U.S. import notification
requirements.
13
-------
EPA also conducted an intensive, five-day,
multi-agency border inspection initiative at the
U.S. Customs port in El Paso in September
1990. Representatives from the Interstate
Commerce Commission, the U.S. Department
of Transportation, the Texas Department of
Public Safety, the Texas Water Commission,
EPA, and U.S. Customs checked all in-bound
and out-bound truck traffic for compliance
with applicable regulations. This action helped
instruct both the regulated community and the
different agencies in the proper procedures for
transporting hazardous wastes across the
border.
SEDUE and EPA have worked together to
investigate several incidents involving the
illegal import/export of hazardous wastes. For
example, on May 28, 1991, the cooperative
efforts of SEDUE, EPA, Mexican and U.S.
customs officials, the U.S. Department of
Justice, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation led to a conviction for the illegal
transportation of hazardous wastes into
Mexico. This was the first time a coordinated,
transboundary enforcement action resulted in
a criminal conviction.
International Wastewater Treatment
Over the past five years approximately $350
million have been spent or committed by
Mexico and the United States to enhance
international wastewater treatment in the
border area. The International Boundary and
Water Commission (IBWC), which has been
responsible for binational wastewater
treatment projects since 1944, currently is
using combined Mexican and U.S. resources
to improve treatment capabilities in three sets
of sister cities (Nuevo Laredo/Laredo,
Nogales/Nogales, and Tijuana/San Diego). The
IBWC also is working with SEDUE, EPA, and
state officials to train IBWC personnel in the
proper operation and maintenance of
wastewater treatment facilities in the border
area.
Nuevo Laredo/Laredo
At this time a $44 million project to improve
wastewater collection and upgrade treatment
in Nuevo Laredo is underway. This
construction project, the costs of which are
being split among the Mexican government,
the U.S. government, and the state of Texas,
is planned for completion by the end of 1994.
This new facility will have the capacity to treat
31 million gallons per day of wastewater,
which will accommodate current wastewater
flows and near-term growth expected in the
area. Pretreatment of industrial wastewater
will be required by the time the system is
completed.
Untreated wastewater from Nuevo Laredo
now flows into the Rio Grande, which is
considered "unswimmable" downstream from
Nuevo Laredo/Laredo. When the new system
is complete, the treated wastewater will meet
U.S. effluent guidelines and Texas water
quality standards.
Nogales/Nogales
The existing Nogales wastewater treatment
plant, which is located on the U.S. side of the
border and serves both cities, currently is
being expanded to approximately double its
capacity from 8.2 to 17.2 million gallons per
day. The $13 million dollar expansion is being
co-funded by the Mexican and U.S.
governments and the city of Nogales, Arizona.
The expansion was substantially completed in
1991, and negotiations are underway to
require industrial sources to pretreat their
wastewaters destined for the plant. Moreover,
the Mexican and U.S. governments have
begun discussions to expand the Nogales
plant further to meet future capacity
demands.
Tijuana/San Diego
During the past few years, Mexico and the
United States have taken several cooperative
steps to eliminate the flow of untreated
wastewater into the Tijuana River, which
empties into the Pacific Ocean off Tijuana/San
Diego. The Mexican government recently
completed construction of a pumping plant,
conveyance channel, and wastewater
treatment facility south of Tijuana. The facility
is now in operation. In October 1991 the
IBWC began operating a system that diverts
untreated wastewater from the Tijuana River
to treatment facilities in both countries. The
state of California also contributed funding for
this diversion project.
On May 24, 1991, Mexican and U.S. officials
participated in the official groundbreaking of a
major component of a new international
wastewater treatment and disposal system
that will serve the Tijuana/San Diego area.
This system, which will include collection
pipes, a 25 million gallon per day wastewater
treatment facility, and an ocean outfall pipe, is
planned for completion by 1995. The cost of
14
-------
the system — approximately $400 million — is
being shared by the two federal governments,
the state of California, and the city of San
Diego.
The new system will meet stringent
environmental standards. For example, the
outfall for treated effluent will extend more
than three miles out into the Pacific Ocean. As
is the case with all binational wastewater
treatment systems along the border, industrial
pretreatment of wastewater will be a
precondition for industrial use of the system.
Hazardous Waste Programs
The transportation, handling, and disposal of
hazardous wastes — whether legal or illegal
— have been a cause of public concern in the
border area for many years. Consequently,
SEDUE and EPA have efforts underway to
ensure proper storage and disposal and to
prosecute persons involved in illegal waste
disposal in the border area.
EPA has identified approximately 450 sites
on the U.S. side in the border area where
hazardous wastes may be stored or disposed
of improperly, and those sites are being
investigated for possible remedial action. The
agency already has work underway to clean
up the five sites in the border area that are on
the U.S. Superfund priority list for clean-up.
Improved Reporting of Transboundary
Shipments of Hazardous Wastes
Binational cooperation in tracking hazardous
wastes from the maquiladoras into the United
States has improved substantially over the
past few years. These transborder shipments
— required by Mexican law — have increased
due to the cooperative efforts of SEDUE, EPA,
Mexican and U.S. customs agencies, and state
governments. For example, SEDUE and EPA
have trained the regulated communities in
proper manifesting and notification
techniques. The two agencies also have
increased their surveillance and inspection of
hazardous waste shipments in the border
area. EPA and the state of Texas have
improved their ability to track wastes using
computers, and U.S. Customs now is involved
in the identification of hazardous waste
shipments. Because of these activities,
reported shipments of hazardous wastes from
maquiladoras in Mexico through Texas have
grown from 190 tons in 1987 to 2,400 tons in
1990.
Joint Training and Education
In order to understand better their respective
responsibilities and methods of operation,
SEDUE and EPA hazardous waste personnel
have participated in several joint training
sessions over the past three years. Officials
from both agencies together have visited more
than two dozen industrial facilities in
Mexico and the United States since 1989.
In addition, SEDUE has visited
approximately 40 U.S. facilities with inspectors
from U.S. state and local governments. Since
1987 SEDUE personnel have participated in
training sessions with EPA, state, and local
enforcement officials. Those sessions included
training in incinerator permitting, inspection
techniques, import/export issues, and site
remediation.
SEDUE and EPA also are working with
industrial sources along the border to help
them manage their hazardous wastes more
effectively. The two agencies have
co-produced a manual for industry that
describes each country's regulations governing
the transboundary movement of hazardous
wastes, and they have sponsored a series of
binational conferences to share waste
management information with industry.
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Under the terms of the 1983 Border
Environmental Agreement, a Mexican-U.S.
Inland Joint Response Team (JRT) has been
established to coordinate binational
preparedness and training for emergencies
involving hazardous substances. The JRT is
activated in the event of a serious hazardous
substances spill or accident in the border area.
Over the past few years several accidents
and spills involving hazardous substances
have occurred in the border area. The JRT
mechanism now in place has enabled more
immediate and effective responses, because
local officials have coordinated their efforts
with their counterparts at the state and federal
levels in both countries. For example, in 1990
a diesel fuel spill in the El Paso area was
reported immediately to government officials
on both sides of the border. Because of the
timely and coordinated response, potential
contamination of drinking water supplies in El
Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juarez was
avoided.
The JRT also serves as a conduit for
information regarding each country's
15
-------
emergency preparedness and response
activities. For example, the JRT has sponsored
two conferences on emergency response
issues of mutual concern to sister cities in the
border area. The JRT currently is working with
state and community officials to develop and
augment emergency response plans for three
pairs of sister cities: Matamoros/Brownsville,
Mexicali/Calexico, and Tijuana/San Diego.
The JRT has conducted several training
courses and simulation exercises for the
officials on both sides of the border who will
be contacted first in case of an accident or spill
involving hazardous substances. For example,
the JRT participated in a simulated exercise in
Mexicali/Calexico in 1989, and in full-field
exercises in Matamoros/Brownsville in 1990
and 1991. These kinds of joint training
exercises are conducted in both Spanish and
English, the training materials are prepared in
both languages, and the exercises are open to
local, state, and federal officials from both
countries.
Figure 3
Ciudad Juarez/El Paso Air Quality
Participate concentrations in El Paso/Juarez - 12/15/89
TEXAS
NEW MEXJO&
to 100
100 to 150
150 to 200 CHIHUAHUA
Monitoring Station
Air Quality Protection
Because of air quality problems nationwide,
both Mexico and the United States have
passed new federal laws to reduce air pollution.
As those laws are implemented over the next
several years, air quality in border communities
will improve.
In addition, SEDUE, EPA, and state and
local governments on both sides of the border
are taking a number of actions — including
bilateral actions — that will improve air
quality in particular border area airsheds. For
example, the city government in Ciudad
Juarez has taken several recent actions to
improve local air quality. A vehicle inspection
program was initiated in December 1991.
Beginning in January 1992, all taxis and public
transportation vehicles will be inspected, and
inspections of private vehicles will begin in
April 1992.
Working with SEDUE, Ciudad Juarez also
has instituted a program designed to reduce
the air emissions caused by the burning of
used tires in local brick kilns. Small-business
loans have been made available to the owners
of the city's 300 brick kilns so they can convert
their kilns to burn sawdust in enclosed stoves,
and some kilns are scheduled to be relocated.
In addition to local actions taken in
response to local air quality problems, SEDUE
and EPA are working under Annex V to the
1983 border agreement to characterize better
the sources and concentrations of air
contaminants in the border area. Beginning in
1989, the two agencies began a major study of
air quality in the Ciudad Juarez/El Paso
airshed. With the assistance of the city of El
Paso, a system of air quality monitors has
been set up in Ciudad Juarez to complement
the system in El Paso. The two systems,
which measure particulate matter, are being
operated with the same quality assurance, and
the data from monitors on both sides of the
border are being combined into one data base
that is accessible to both countries. As a
result, it is now possible for the first time to
quantify air quality thoughout the entire
airshed of a pair of sister cities. (See Figure 3.)
16
-------
SEDUE and EPA also are working with the
California Air Resources Board (CARB) and
local officials to characterize and control air
emissions in the Tijuana/San Diego and
Mexicali/Calexico areas. A study of the sources
of particulate matter in the Imperial Valley,
where Mexicali and Calexico are located, is
underway, and a working group of federal,
state, and local officials in Tijuana/San Diego
is studying ways to reduce emissions from
motor vehicles, especially those used for
transborder commuting.
In October 1991 the city of El Paso initiated
a voluntary oxygenated fuels program that
should lower local carbon monoxide emissions
substantially. Because of the potential for
reducing carbon monoxide concentrations in
airsheds borderwide, SEDUE is studying the
introduction of oxygenated fuels in Mexican
border cities.
Under Annex IV to the 1983 Border
Environmental Agreement, SEDUE and EPA
have cooperated to control air emissions from
copper smelters in the border area. Under the
terms of a Mexican-U.S. agreement, a copper
smelter in Douglas, Arizona, has ceased
operations; a smelter in Nacozari, Sonora, has
been retrofitted to capture sulfur and sell it as
a byproduct; and a smelter in Cananea,
Sonora, has reduced its operations. As a
result, sulfur dioxide emissions from copper
smelters in the border area have decreased
dramatically over the past few years.
Projects Involving Other
Mexican-U.S. Agencies
Besides SEDUE and EPA, a number of other
federal agencies in Mexico and the
United States are carrying out projects to
protect the environment in the border area.
Some of these projects are being conducted
with bilateral cooperation; some are being
conducted unilaterally. Even though these
projects have not been included as formal
parts of this plan, they are important
components of the overall binational strategy
to protect human health and ecological
resources along the Mexican-U.S. border.
• Mexico and the United States share a long
history of cooperation on wildlife protection
and the conservation of natural resources in
the border area. Cooperative efforts to protect
wildlife date back to the Convention for the
Protection of Migratory Birds and Game
Mammals, signed by the two countries in
1936. In 1941 Mexico and the United States
joined with other countries in signing the
Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife
Preservation in the Western Hemisphere.
More recently, in 1984 SEDUE and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) agreed to
establish a bilateral Joint Committee on
Wildlife Conservation that coordinates
Mexican-U.S efforts to protect threatened or
endangered species, exchange wildlife
specimens, and protect the habitat of
migratory birds. The FWS also carries out
projects in Mexico under the North American
Wetlands Conservation Act, which funds
wetlands projects in the United States,
Canada, and Mexico.
• SEDUE and the U.S. National Park Service
have agreed to work together to preserve and
manage natural ecosystems and cultural
heritage resources along the border. Since the
two agencies signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) on November 30, 1988,
they have been discussing the establishment of
several new parks and natural preserves along
the border. For example, the two agencies are
discussing the establishment of a protected
area adjacent to Big Bend National Park that
would include the Sierra del Carmen, and
they are considering proposals that would
establish a Greater Sonoran Desert Biosphere
Reserve.
• Mexico's Subsecretariat of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Water Resources (SAHR) and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest
Service have been cooperating on forest issues
under a 1985 Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU). That cooperation will continue in the
future with a special emphasis on border area
problems.
For example, the two agencies have
developed an agreement to cooperate in
fighting forest fires along the border, and
several binational forest fire prevention and
training courses have been held. SAHR and
the Forest Service are planning to hold a 1992
workshop to help identify rare and
endangered species in the border area. The
Forest Service also is working with the
Mexican state of Chihuahua to develop and
implement conservation projects, and it is
providing technical advice to SAHR on the
completion of environmental analyses required
by the World Bank for a conservation project
in Chihuahua.
17
-------
• The Gulf of Mexico is a natural resource of
enormous economic and environmental value
to both Mexico and the United States. The
gulf sustains a multi-billion dollar per year
tourist industry in both countries, and it is the
source of over 90 percent of combined
Mexican and U.S. offshore oil production. At
the same time, the Gulf of Mexico is one of
the world's major commercial fishing grounds,
and wetlands bordering the gulf provide
habitat for more than 75 percent of North
America's migratory waterfowl and a breeding
ground for a variety of fish and shellfish.
Because of their mutual concern about the
future health and productivity of the Gulf of
Mexico, the Mexican and U.S. governments
have taken several cooperative steps to protect
it. In 1980, for example, the two countries
agreed to establish contingency plans for oil
spills and other marine emergencies in shared
waters like the Gulf of Mexico. Both countries
have worked to have the Gulf of Mexico
designated as a specially protected area under
Annex V to the International Convention for
the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (the
MARPOL Convention). This designation
would require stringent restrictions on the
generation and disposal of wastes resulting
from ship operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
In addition, both Mexico and the United
States are parties to the 1986 Convention for
the Protection and Development of the Marine
Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region
(the Cartagena Convention). Under this
convention, Mexico, the United States, and
other Caribbean countries are developing a
protocol for controlling land-based sources of
pollution that affect the Carribean marine
region, which includes the Gulf of Mexico. As
a part of their joint efforts in this area, in 1992
SEDUE and EPA will initiate a bilateral pilot
program to control land-based sources of
marine pollution in the border area.
• Mexico's Secretaria de Pesca (PESCA)
and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) have cooperated for several years on
research related to fish and shellfish that are
found in both countries' ocean waters. These
transboundary marine species, such as tuna,
shrimp, anchovy, and mackerel, are important
economic and ecological resources. Research
currently is being conducted in the Gulf of
Mexico on species including sea turtles,
shrimp, and plankton. In the Pacific Ocean,
the two agencies are working together to
study sardines, anchovies, and sharks, among
others.
• The U.S. National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has
included the Tijuana River National Estuarine
Research Reserve as one of the sites in its
National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
This 2500-acre site is located at the mouth of
the Tijuana River and abuts the Mexican-U.S.
border. For the past four years NOAA has
been conducting studies of water quality,
channel fishes, invertebrates, vegetation, and
marsh soils in order to document the
pollutants that enter the estuarine research
reserve from the Tijuana River, and assess
changes in the estuarine ecology.
• During 1992 the U.S. Department of the
Interior (DOI) will initiate a new water
resources study that will include a portion of
the border area. The Lower Rio Grande Basin
Study, which will be conducted by DOI's
Bureau of Reclamation, will include the Texas
portion of the lower Rio Grande basin from
Amistad Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. It also
will include portions of some counties in the
adjoining Nueces/Rio Grande basin.
This study will focus primarily on water
supply/demand issues. A special report, to be
completed by September 1995, will include
present and projected population data, water
demand by sectors, an assessment of available
water resources, an evaluation of current and
anticipated water supply technologies, and
options and alternatives for meeting future
water needs.
• Since 1943, the El Paso, Texas, field office of
the Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) has functioned as a binational forum
for health issues in the border area. This
PAHO office works to bring together health
professionals to address public health
problems on both sides of the Mexican-U.S.
border.
In 1990 the U.S. Public Health Service
contracted with PAHO to manage Project
CONSENSO, which was intended to
identify and prioritize border health problems,
and suggest responses to those problems.
Project CONSENSO has helped to build
binational consensus for action to
protect human health in the border
18
-------
area. In particular, Project CONSENSO has
resulted in an assessment of current health
conditions along the border, an inventory of
existing border health resources, the
identification of binational health priorities in
different border regions, and
recommendations for action by local, state,
and federal governments.
The U.S. Public Health Service also has
begun a program to prevent and treat cholera
along the border. It is working with the
public and medical communities to help them
avoid cholera, and it is instructing
medical and laboratory workers on how to
identify and treat it.
• For the past several years the U.S. Agency
for International Development (AID) has
funded environmental projects in Mexico, and
several of those projects are directly related to
the border environment. For example, in 1991
AID provided a grant to The Nature
Conservancy to assist Mexican government
agencies in the management and protection of
national parks in Mexico, including along the
Mexican-U.S. border. A grant to the World
Wildlife Fund is being used to develop and
implement pilot buffer zone management
projects in Mexico, and one of those projects
will include baseline ecological studies, master
planning, institution building, and
managment practices in a forested wildland
along the Mexican-U.S. border.
• At a joint conference held in Ciudad
Juarez/El Paso in October 1991, the Mexican
Secretaria de Educacion Publica (SEP) and
the U.S. Department of Education agreed to
expand the cooperative educational efforts that
they have carried out since 1990 under a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on
environmental education. The two agencies
agreed on a series of cooperative efforts, to be
undertaken in 1992 and 1993, that would
improve lower and higher education
throughout the two nations, but especially in
the border area. In particular, the two
agencies agreed to examine possible joint
efforts in the area of environmental education.
• Agricultural chemicals may pose risks to
farm workers and, because of drift and runoff,
to the general public and local ecosystems.
The Mexican and U.S. governments are
developing cooperative approaches to
pesticide-related problems in the border area,
and they are collaborating on the development
of control mechanisms.
In order to regulate pesticides and other
toxic chemicals in Mexico, the Mexican
government has created CICOPLAFEST, an
intergovernmental commission comprised of
SEDUE and several other Mexican agencies.
This commission brings together in one place
the various laws and agencies responsible for
all aspects of pesticide regulation in Mexico.
• To facilitate the cross-border flow of
commerce and reduce the environmental
effects of border traffic delay, the Mexican and
U.S. governments have initiated a coordinated
border area construction program. On the
Mexican side, SEDUE is working with the
Secretaria de Comunicacion y Transportes
(SCT) to construct 12 additional crossings
along the Mexican-U.S. border. On the U.S.
side, the General Services Administration
(GSA) is managing a $350 million project to
modernize and expand existing border
stations, and build new stations. By the end of
1991, about half the planned U.S. projects had
been completed, and the rest are expected to
be completed by the end of 1994.
19
-------
The
Mexican-US.
Border Plan
First Stage 1992-1994
Goal and Objectives
of the Plan
The goal of this bilateral environmental plan
is to provide for the long-term protection of
human health and natural ecosystems along
the border between Mexico and the United
States. To attain this goal, the Mexican and
U.S. governments are committed to meeting
four specific objectives:
• Strengthening enforcement of existing laws;
• Reducing pollution through new initiatives;
• Increasing cooperative planning, training,
and education; and
• Improving understanding of the border
environment.
As these objectives are met, they will lead to
measurable improvements in environmental
quality in the border area. At the same time,
Mexico and the United States will use their
improved understanding of the border
environment to refine and strengthen their
cooperative efforts during the second stage of
this plan (1995-2000).
20
-------
Strengthening Enforcement
of Existing Laws
Both Mexico and the United States have
enacted comprehensive federal laws intended
to protect the environment on their respective
sides of the border. SEDUE and EPA have the
responsibility to implement and enforce their
respective government's environmental laws,
and both of them share that responsibility
with state and local governments. In the
United States, other federal agencies such as
the Department of Justice, the Customs
Service, and the Department of the Interior's
Fish and Wildlife Service also play key roles in
enforcing environmental law.
As a part of this plan, SEDUE is taking
several actions to improve compliance with
Mexico's environmental laws by facilities on
the Mexican side of the border. Beginning in
January 1992, the number of environmental
inspectors working in the Mexican border
communities will be increased from 100 to 200.
Taken together with the provision for 50 new
border environmental inspectors in 1990, this
new increase will result in a quadrupling of
Mexican environmental inspectors along
Mexico's northern border since 1989.
To help make these new inspectors more
effective, SEDUE's 1992 operational budget for
the border area will increase about 450 percent
to $6.3 million. All SEDUE work stations along
the border will be equipped with computers
and data banks to facilitate information-
sharing both among work stations and also
across the border with their U.S. counterparts.
While SEDUE and EPA work unilaterally to
improve enforcement of their own national
laws, bilateral activities that strengthen each
country's environmental enforcement will be
expanded substantially under this border plan.
In particular, the two agencies will work
together by (1) forming a new binational
workgroup on enforcement, (2) building
enforcement capacity, (3) sharing enforcement
information, and (4) undertaking new
cooperative enforcement initiatives.
Cooperative Enforcement
Strategy Workgroup
Both SEDUE and EPA are convinced that their
separate efforts to assure compliance with
their respective environmental laws can be
enhanced by formal, ongoing cooperation.
Consequently, the two agencies, with the
participation of other Mexican agencies and
the U.S. Departments of Justice and State,
have established a new workgroup charged
with developing a strategy to enhance
enforcement efforts in both countries.
The Cooperative Enforcement Strategy
Workgroup will meet periodically to review
each agency's evolving enforcement activities
and define ways those activities could
reinforce each other. SEDUE and the U.S.
environmental enforcement agencies will
prepare an annual bilateral enforcement report
describing the two governments' cooperative
enforcement actions.
The new workgroup will serve as a formal
mechanism for shaping Mexican-U.S.
cooperative enforcement efforts undertaken as
part of this plan. For example, the new
workgroup will coordinate new capacity
building, information sharing, and cooperative
enforcement initiatives.
Enforcement Capacity Building
As SEDUE and EPA work to support each
other's enforcement efforts, it is essential for
each agency to deepen its understanding of
the other's legal system, regulatory
approaches, and enforcement methods. Thus
the two agencies will expand their existing
efforts to conduct cooperative training visits to
facilities on both sides of the border. During
such visits, officials from one agency will
participate as observers at the invitation of the
other agency.
Further, inspectors and other enforcement
personnel working for both agencies will meet
together in workshops, seminars, and field
exercises. SEDUE and EPA will look for
opportunities for temporary personnel
exchanges in order to share experiences and
develop technical skills to support
enforcement. SEDUE and EPA also will
exchange information on laboratory facilities
and analytical techniques.
21
-------
Enforcement Information Sharing
SEDUE and EPA recognize that timely
information is one of the keys to effective
enforcement of environmental law.
Consequently, the two agencies will develop
new mechanisms for sharing information on
the inventory of regulated facilities in the
border area and the transborder movement of
pollution. In particular, over the next three
years SEDUE and EPA plan to develop a
coordinated and computerized system to track
all shipments of hazardous wastes between
the two countries. This system will track
hazardous wastes from the point of generation
in one country to the point of treatment or
disposal in the other. Semi-annual reports
showing hazardous waste generation rates at
Mexican facilities shipping wastes across the
border also will be entered into the system.
EPA will provide information through
inspections and review of U.S. manifest data.
Cooperative Enforcement Actions
In an effort to maximize the effectiveness of
their respective enforcement efforts along the
border, SEDUE and U.S. environmental
enforcement agencies will conduct them in a
cooperative and, when appropriate,
concurrent manner. For example, among the
key enforcement tools used in the border area
are unannounced, high-visibility inspections
at border crossings. Such inspections are used
to intercept illegal shipments of hazardous
waste, identify routine shippers of such waste,
and discourage further illegal shipments.
SEDUE and EPA also will cooperate to set
enforcement targets and communicate
enforcement accomplishments. Cooperative
targeting will help the agencies protect
geographic areas of mutual interest and
concern, such as particularly sensitive
ecosystems. Cooperative communications will
allow the agencies to inform the regulated
industry — and the public — throughout the
border area of industry's record of
environmental compliance.
Reducing Pollution
Through New Initiatives
As the enforcement of existing environmental
laws and regulations on both sides of the
border is strengthened, pollutant loadings in
all environmental media will decline. In
addition, the Mexican and U.S. governments
are committed to undertaking several new
initiatives during the first stage of this plan to
provide further protection for the border
environment.
Increase Wastewater Treatment
During the first stage of this plan, Mexico and
the United States plan to substantially increase
their support for the construction and
expansion of wastewater treatment facilities in
the border area. Increased funding will be
made available for international wastewater
treatment facilities, the construction and
operation of which are the responsibility of
the binational IBWC, and for other facilities
that are the responsibility of state and local
governments.
The recent expansion of the international
wastewater treatment facility in Nogales/
Nogales will be completed as this border plan
begins to be implemented. Then, during the
first stage of this plan, the collector system in
Mexico will be expanded at a cost to the
Mexican government of about $1.6 million.
President Bush's FY 1993 budget request
includes $5 million to be used for planning
and design of trunkline sewer and treatment
plant improvements that will help reduce
wastewater in the Nogales Wash and thus
protect surface waters in Nogales, Arizona.
The IBWC will continue discussions with
Nogales/Nogales on the size, funding, and
timing of further expansion that may be
needed to handle anticipated growth in the
area.
Mexico and the United States are committed
to completing the new international
wastewater treatment system at Tijuana/San
Diego by 1995. To that end, during the first
stage of this plan, the construction of all
primary sewage network collectors in Tijuana
will be completed, and 24,000 additional
Mexican residences will be hooked up to the
system. Mexican investment in the Tijuana
wastewater system in the coming year will
total approximately $14 million.
U.S. spending on the international system
22
-------
in FY 1992 totalled $49 million, and the
President has requested an additional $65
million in his FY 1993 budget proposal. The
state of California also will contribute $5.3
million to this project. These funds will be
used to complete construction of the
international wastewater treatment plant and
ocean outfall. Completion of the project will
reduce pollution in the Tijuana River and thus
protect the National Estuarine Research
Reserve and the Pacific coastline on the south
side of San Diego.
In addition, the President has requested $40
million in FY 1993 to complete the funding
necessary to enhance treatment at San Diego's
existing wastewater facility. Together with $40
million in FY 1992, these funds will be used to
complete wastewater projects that will
improve water quality in the San Diego area
and along the Pacific coastline. Pending
completion of the new international treatment
plant to the south, the San Diego treatment
plant will process Tijuana sewage.
The expansion of the Nuevo Laredo/Laredo
international wastewater treatment facility will
be completed by 1994. Mexico intends to
invest about $14 million in 1992 to help
construct the treatment plant and pumping
station.
Mexico plans to begin or expand work on
wastewater collection and treatment systems
in several other Mexican border cities in the
coming year. In Matamoros, $6 million will be
spent in 1992 to expand wastewater collector
systems and construct a treatment facility. In
Reynosa, the wastewater treatment facility will
be expanded and rehabilitated, and the
collector system will be improved, at a cost of
$4.4 million. In Piedras Negras, $3.6 million
will be spent to construct a treatment plant
and expand the collector system. About $10
million will be spent to begin construction of a
high-capacity wastewater treatment plant and
expanded collector system in Ciudad Juarez.
Construction will begin on a new treatment
plant, and the collector system will be
expanded, in San Luis Rio Colorado, at a cost
of $3 million.
Finally, the Mexicali treatment plant will be
expanded, collectors in the downtown area
will be rehabilitated, and a collector system in
the eastern part of the city will be constructed,
at a cost to the Mexican government of $8.6
million. President Bush has requested about $10
million in FY 1993 to be used for the planning,
design, and preliminary construction of
Mexicali's wastewater collection and treatment
improvements. Completion of this project will
mitigate pollution of the New River and
thereby protect California's Imperial Valley
and Salton Sea.
On the U.S. side of the border, the state of
Texas, with support from EPA, recently
established a major program to reduce
water-related health risks in Texas colonias.
Texas has earmarked $250 million of state
funds for a low-interest loan program to fund
the construction of water supply, water
distribution, and wastewater treatment
systems in the colonias. EPA in turn provided
Texas with a $15 million grant to establish a
special loan fund to be used to connect private
homes to water mains and sewer systems. The
EPA grant was awarded in September 1991.
EPA also is planning to fund a construction
program to improve wastewater treatment in
colonias on the U.S. side of the border. The
President's FY 1993 budget proposal includes
a request for $50 million to plan, design, and
construct wastewater systems in U.S. colonias.
Completion of these projects will reduce
wastewater pollution in surface waters and
shallow ground water near the colonias and
thereby reduce the health risks posed by
hepatitis and other waterborne diseases.
Strengthen Industrial Wastewater
Pretreatment Program
The discharge of untreated industrial
wastewater into transboundary waters has
been the cause of human health and ecological
concern along the Mexican-U.S. border for
many years. With the recent and planned
investment of hundreds of millions of dollars
in binational wastewater collection and
treatment facilities, those concerns have taken
on an added economic dimension, because
untreated industrial wastewater can seriously
degrade the ability of a wastewater treatment
facility to treat sewage effectively.
Mexico and the United States have
recognized their mutual obligation to ensure
source control and pretreatment of industrial
wastewater before it is conveyed to a
binational wastewater treatment facility.
Under the terms of the 1944 treaty and
subsequent agreements, the IBWC, in
cooperation with SEDUE and EPA,
coordinates the implementation of both
nations' industrial wastewater control
programs to ensure that neither
transboundary water sources nor international
23
-------
wastewater treatment facilities are degraded
by untreated industrial wastes.
To fulfill this responsibility, the IBWC will
work to ensure that industrial facilities that
send their wastewater to a new or expanded
treatment facility pretreat their effluent
adequately. Industrial pretreatment will be
required as a precondition for use of
binational facilities. In particular, the IBWC
will work with SEDUE and EPA to design
source control and pretreatment programs for
the Tijuana/San Diego, Nogales/Nogales, and
Nuevo Laredo/Laredo areas.
In order to ensure that pretreatment
programs are effective, the IBWC will monitor
and characterize the raw wastewater entering
binational wastewater treatment facilities. The
IBWC will have access to the data collected in
Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana under the
multimedia industrial source control initiative
described in this plan. Using those data and
the monitoring data collected at wastewater
treatment facilities, the IBWC will be able to
assess whether industrial sources are
complying with Mexican and U.S.
environmental law.
Protect Drinking Water Supplies
Primarily due to unplanned population
growth in and near sister cities in the border
area, hundreds of thousands of people on
both sides of the border do not have access to
safe drinking water supplied by a centralized
system. As a result, untreated drinking water
poses a human health concern in many
communities along the border.
During the first stage of this plan, the IBWC
will use information supplied by SEDUE,
EPA, and state and local authorities to
develop an inventory of the sources, quality,
and treatment processes for water at existing
drinking water facilities in all pairs of sister
cities along the border. Based on that
inventory, the Mexican and U.S. governments
will determine the priority needs for drinking
water treatment and distribution systems on
their respective sides of the border.
On the U.S. side of the border, funds will
be available for the construction and
improvement of drinking water systems in
colonias. Colonias in Texas will be able to
borrow from the state's $250 million loan fund
to construct drinking water systems, and $15
million in EPA funds are available as loans
to fund residential hook-ups to those systems.
In addition, the President's proposed FY
1993 budget includes $25 million to be used to
construct drinking water systems in the U.S.
colonias. Those funds would be available
through the Rural Development
Administration of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Initiate Multimedia Industrial Source
Controls
During the first stage of this plan, SEDUE and
EPA will initiate an innovative program to
control toxic releases from large industrial
facilities in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana. More
than half the maquiladoras along the border
are located in those two cities. This effort not
only will reduce pollutant loadings to the air,
water, and land in those two cities, but it will
provide information useful for expanding the
program into other border cities during the
second stage of this plan.
Beginning in 1992, SEDUE will work with
EPA to identify the largest potential emitters
of toxic pollutants in the Ciudad Juarez and
Tijuana areas. Those facilities will be
asked to submit data on their estimated
releases of toxic pollutants into all
environmental media. It then will be possible
to target enforcement actions and voluntary
pollution prevention programs on the facilities
posing the greatest public health risks.
Besides the near-term environmental
benefits, this multimedia industrial source
control initiative will allow SEDUE and EPA to
estimate the total amounts of toxic pollutants
being emitted in Ciudad Juarez/El Paso and
Tijuana/San Diego, the two most
industrialized areas along the Mexican-U.S.
border. The two agencies will combine the
information gathered during this initiative
with similar information on U.S. facilities now
contained in the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory
database. This information will be available to
the public by the end of the first stage of this
plan, and it will be the first step toward the
long-term goal of a comprehensive toxics
release inventory for the entire border area.
24
-------
Improve Disposal of Solid and
Hazardous Wastes
During the first stage of this plan, Mexico
intends to invest approximately $25 million to
expand solid waste collection capacity and
construct new landfills in several border cities.
Many of these investments will be made as
early as 1992. For example, about $2 million
will be invested to purchase containers,
collection vehicles, and heavy equipment for
landfills in Matamoros. Investments will be
made for the same purposes in Reynosa ($2
million), Nuevo Laredo ($2 million), Piedras
Negras ($1.5 million), and Ciudad Juarez ($4
million). In Nogales, waste collection
equipment will be purchased and landfills
constructed at a cost of $1.8 million. In San
Luis Rio Colorado, $1.4 million will be
invested to solve municipal solid waste
problems.
SEDUE and EPA will improve cooperative
efforts to detect illegal cross-border movement
of hazardous wastes and encourage proper
waste disposal. With the assistance of state
environmental agencies, SEDUE and EPA will
develop a centralized, binational computer
system that will expedite the exchange of
transportation data, such as shipping manifests.
The two agencies, together with their respective
customs agencies, will develop a border-wide
surveillance system to detect and stop illegal
hazardous waste shipments. SEDUE will work
to increase Mexican public awareness of
illegal hazardous waste disposal, and more
fully involve the Mexican public in report-
ing illegal dumping to the appropriate
authorities.
Set Aside Land in Mexico for
Low-Income Housing
On the Mexican side of the border,
environmental problems in rapidly-growing
urban areas are complicated by the fact that
low-income housing is unplanned. Mexican
families who move to Mexican border cities in
search of work often build their homes in
unplanned communities without regard to the
need for roads, sewer lines, or drinking water
systems.
To address this problem, during the first
phase of the plan SEDUE will invest about $43
million to set aside land to be used for the
construction of low-income housing. As early
as 1992, SEDUE will begin setting aside
territorial reserves in Mexican border cities.
For example, $2 million will be invested to
acquire 150 hectares of land in Reynosa, and
$4 million will be invested to acquire 300
hectares of land in Ciudad Juarez. During the
first stage of this plan, SEDUE expects to set
aside a total of over 3000 hectares of land to
be used for projects that protect the border
environment.
Improve Air Quality
During the first stage of this plan, Mexico
intends to invest approximately $168 million to
improve roads, bridges, traffic circulation, and
public transportation systems, especially in
heavily-travelled urban areas. These
investments will help improve Mexican urban
air quality, but the health benefits will be
shared by the people who live and work in
the U.S. cities across the border.
In the coming year, Mexico will pave and
improve roads in Matamoros ($5.2 million),
Reynosa ($5.2), Piedras Negras ($1.2 million),
Ciudad Juarez ($6 million), Nogales ($3.6
million), San Luis Rio Colorado ($1.8 million),
and Mexicali ($4.7 million). Investments to
improve the flow of border traffic in Tijuana
will total $9 million, and transborder bridges
will be constructed or expanded in Nuevo
Laredo, Piedras Negras, Mexicali, and Tijuana.
The border crossing in Ciudad de Colombia,
Nuevo Leon, will be improved in order to
relieve the congestion at Reynosa and Nuevo
Laredo.
In addition, Mexico will establish lines of
credit for public/private transportation
ventures in the border area. In the coming
year, loans in excess of $3.8 million will be
available to modernize transportation systems
in Mexicali, and another $5 million in loans
will be directed to improve public
transportation in Tijuana.
In three pairs of sister cities, SEDUE and
EPA will work together to develop
comprehensive strategies to control all major
sources of air pollution. By the end of 1994,
SEDUE and EPA will develop air quality
control strategies for the Ciudad Juarez/El
Paso, Mexicali/Calexico, and Tijuana/San
Diego airsheds. These strategies, which will be
tailored to the unique characteristics of the
three different airsheds, will be based on air
quality modeling and source data collection
efforts already underway or soon to be
25
-------
initiated. Air quality control strategies will be
evaluated periodically as more and better data
are acquired through monitoring and
modeling, and then the strategies will be
revised as necessary.
SEDUE and EPA, with assistance from the
city of El Paso, already are cooperating to
monitor air quality in the Ciudad Juarez/El
Paso airshed. That program will continue
during the first stage of this border plan. At
the same time, SEDUE and EPA will initiate
similar air quality monitoring and emissions
inventory programs in the Mexicali/Calexico
and Tijuana/San Diego airsheds.
Primarily because of extensive agricultural
activities in the Mexicali/Calexico area, the air
pollutant of primary concern there is
particulate matter. During the first phase of
this border plan, SEDUE and EPA will
monitor ambient particulate concentrations in
the area, determine the sources responsible for
particulate emissions, and estimate
cross-border movement of air-borne
particulates.
In the Tijuana/San Diego airshed, the air
pollutants of concern are volatile organic
compounds, carbon monoxide, nitrogen
dioxide, and particulates. At this time,
because only one air quality monitoring
station is operating in Tijuana, little is known
about the relative contribution of Mexican and
U.S. sources to area-wide air quality. Over the
next three years the monitoring program in
Tijuana will be expanded.
In all three areas, SEDUE and EPA will
coordinate their efforts to develop detailed air
quality control strategies by the end of 1994.
In developing and implementing those
strategies, SEDUE and EPA will work closely
with state and local agencies on both sides of
the border.
Promote Pollution Prevention
Borderwide
Pollution prevention is an innovative approach
to environmental protection that promises
substantial benefits in the border area.
Whereas traditional efforts to protect the
environment have emphasized the collection,
treatment, and disposal of pollutants after they
have been generated (for example, through
the use of catalysts on cars), pollution
prevention emphasizes the minimization of
pollution before it is generated. That is, if
production systems are redesigned to use less
input material and less energy, wastes can be
minimized. As a result, less pollution needs to
be treated in traditional ways.
There are a number of benefits that make
pollution prevention especially attractive in
the border area. It is a relatively inexpensive
way to protect the environment; the costs
involved in preventing pollution often are
dramatically lower than the costs of treatment
and disposal. Because privately-owned
businesses have an incentive to look for the
least expensive ways of minimizing waste,
they often are willing to apply their own
technical expertise in voluntary programs,
thus reducing the need for government
expenditures.Moreover, pollution prevention
efforts lessen the possibility of hazardous
spills or accidents, either within or outside a
facility's boundaries, because less hazardous
material needs to be handled, transported,
and disposed.
EPA recently initiated several projects to
prevent pollution in the United States. In
February 1991, for example, EPA announced
its Industrial 33/50 Project, though which it is
encouraging U.S. industry to reduce emissions
of 17 hazardous substances by 33 percent by
the end of 1992, and by 50 percent by the end
of 1995. By the end of 1991, over 700 U.S.
companies had committed to reducing their
emissions of the 17 target chemicals by almost
300 million pounds per year by 1995.
New Pollution Prevention Workgroup
Because of the potential for pollution
prevention techniques to protect the border
environment, SEDUE and EPA have established
a new Pollution Prevention Workgroup under
the 1983 Border Environmental Agreement.
This workgroup will coordinate efforts by
SEDUE and EPA to define and implement
pollution prevention projects in the border
area.
26
-------
Border Area Pollution Prevention Initiatives
As a first step, the new Pollution Prevention
Workgroup will build on EPA's 33/50 Project
in the border area. A special effort will be
made to encourage industrial facilities on the
U.S. side of the border to enlist in the project,
and the U.S. owners of facilities on the
Mexican side of the border will be encouraged
to apply their pollution prevention activities in
Mexico as well as the United States.
The workgroup also will investigate the
potential of pollution prevention projects
tailored to the unique circumstances of the
border area. If industrial pollutants of
particular concern in the border area can be
identified, the two agencies will encourage
facilities on their respective sides of the border
to voluntarily reduce their emissions of such
pollutants by a specified amount and by a
specified time.
During the first phase of this plan, the
workgroup also intends to assess the potential
effectiveness of other kinds of pollution
prevention initiatives. Pollution prevention
projects affecting municipal wastewater
treatment, water use efficiency, and
agricultural chemical use may be especially
beneficial in the border area. Based on its
assessments, the workgroup will recommend
to the two agencies additional pollution
prevention projects to be implemented in the
border area.
Technical Assistance for Pollution Prevention
To maximize the effectiveness of their joint
pollution prevention program, SEDUE and
EPA will work together to provide a technical
assistance program to participating businesses.
The technical assistance will consist of
training, information, university-based
technical resource centers, and demonstration
projects.
Under this technical assistance program,
industry employees will be trained to conduct
internal environmental audits and assessments
in their facilities. They will be assisted in
identifying alternative production processes,
technologies, and materials that minimize
wastes.
The information element of the technical
assistance program will consist of a direct
hook-up to the International Cleaner
Production Information Clearinghouse
operated jointly by EPA and the United
Nations Environment Program. This
computer-based network will supply
businesses in the border area with access to
international technology information, case
studies, and technical guidance data bases.
EPA also will explore ways to support
several university-based pollution prevention
research and education centers in the border
area. These centers will conduct research on
pollution prevention techniques especially
appropriate for the particular industries
located in the border area, and they will help
local businesses gain access to and apply the
information contained in international data
bases.
Finally, EPA will work with SEDUE and
border-area universities to develop model
pollution prevention and recycling
demonstration projects for local communities.
These model projects will engage local
businesses, schools, and communications
media in a coordinated, cross-media strategy
to prevent specific kinds of pollution in
specific communities. The results of these
demonstration projects will be shared with
other communities in the border area so they
can be replicated wherever appropriate.
27
-------
Increasing Cooperative
Planning, Training,
and Education
During the first stage of this plan, SEDUE and
EPA intend to expand substantially the joint
planning, training, and education programs
that the two agencies have undertaken since
1983. These new programs will be targeted at
emergency preparedness and response
personnel, government officials, the private
sector, and the general public.
Emergency Preparedness
and Response Personnel
Because of widespread public concern about
the possibility of spills or accidents involving
hazardous substances in densely-populated,
extensively-traveled areas along the border,
SEDUE and EPA intend to expand planning,
training, and eduation efforts related to
chemical accidents and emergencies. These
efforts will include contingency planning in
local communities, the provision of
information and data related to hazardous
chemicals, and support for local action groups.
During the first stage of this plan,
contingency plans already being developed in
Matamoros/Brownsville, Mexicali/Calexico, and
Tijuana/San Diego will be improved and
further tested. For the other 11 pairs of sister
cities, a detailed schedule will be drawn up for
the development of contingency plans in each
city, and those plans will be completed within
three years.
Working through the bilateral Joint
Response Team, SEDUE and EPA also will
work to improve the information and data that
are needed to help border communities
prepare for and respond to chemical
emergencies. Data on the kinds, quantities,
and locations of hazardous chemicals
used in border-area facilities will be
collected, and those data will be made
available to government officials,
non-government organizations, and the
general public on both sides of the border.
The United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) has developed a program that serves
as an international guide for contingency
plans, response preparation, and public
information. This program, Awareness and
Preparedness for Emergencies at the Local
Level (APELL), will be used to guide the
development of contingency plans and public
information in the border area.
28
To improve local emergency response
capabilities, SEDUE and EPA will encourage
and support local action groups that help to
coordinate transborder planning, prevention,
and response activities in the sister cities.
These broad-based groups, such as local
emergency planning committees, will include
local public officials, representatives from
business and industry, and non-government
organizations.
SEDUE and EPA will encourage extensive
private sector involvement in these local
planning efforts. Industrial facilities will be
asked to make information on chemical use
and storage locations available to local
response officials, and provide equipment that
would be available to the community in the
event of a chemical emergency.
One of the main purposes of the local action
groups is to ensure that cities are alerted in
case of a spill or accident across the border.
An incident involving acute toxic effects will
be reported immediately to state and federal
officials in both countries. Because fire
equipment, other emergency vehicles, and
technical personnel sometimes are needed
from the city across the border, SEDUE and
EPA will work with state governments, local
action groups, and customs officials from both
countries to remove legal, political, and
liability impediments to the rapid movement
of emergency vehicles and personnel across
the border.
The Mexican government is establishing an
environmental contingency loan fund to
expedite the response to chemical accidents or
emergencies. Approximately $4 million will be
available to Mexican state and local officials
who have the responsibility to respond to and
clean up hazardous materials that are spilled
accidentally. Because these funds will allow
the Mexican government to respond more
quickly, potential risks to people living on
both sides of the border will be reduced.
The bilateral Joint Response Team will
develop a data base that catalogues and
describes all hazardous spills and accidents in
the border area. This data base will be
available to the public on both sides of the
border.
-------
Government Officials
As discussed above, SEDUE and EPA will
expand ongoing cooperation in the training of
environmental enforcement personnel. The
two agencies also will continue and expand
ongoing efforts to train U.S. and Mexican
customs officials to identify and track
shipments of hazardous materials and wastes,
determine whether or not those shipments
comply with applicable regulations, and
handle the shipments safely.
In the interests of public safety, SEDUE and
EPA will work with their respective customs
agencies to improve the safety and rapid
movement of hazardous materials and wastes
through border ports. In addition, SEDUE and
EPA will work with the transportation
agencies in both countries to assess their
regulations regarding transboundary
movements of hazardous materials and
wastes, and to make recommendations for
ways to make such transport safer.
The Private Sector
Several educational programs targeted at the
private sector will be initiated during the first
stage of this border plan. For example, to
improve the handling and disposal of wastes
throughout the border area, SEDUE and EPA
will initiate a training and education program
for commercial and industrial sources of
waste. This program will be carried out in
cooperation with the New Mexico-based
Waste Management Education and Research
Consortium and the U.S. Department of
Energy.
The two agencies will continue to publish in
a joint, bilingual form their regulatory
requirements for the proper handling and
disposal of hazardous wastes. This document
will be made available to all handlers of
hazardous substances and generators of
hazardous wastes on both sides of the border.
All such materials will be publicized
throughout the border area to ensure the
widest possible distribution within the
regulated community.
The Public
SEDUE and EPA believe that the widespread
involvement of the general public is essential
to the success of this border plan.
Consequently, they will work with local public
and private institutions, and with the private
sector, to improve public understanding of the
border environment and the role the public
can play in protecting it.
For example, the two agencies intend to
develop bilingual environmental education
materials that will be distributed to local
schools. They will encourage the international
exchange of teachers and other educational
professionals who work in the border area.
Further, the two agencies will work with local
school systems to design educational projects
that foster international cooperation in
addressing border environmental issues.
EPA's participation in this educational effort
will be shaped by the National Environmental
Education Act, which was signed into law on
November 16, 1990. That law calls on EPA to
join with Mexico and Canada in the
development of environmental education
initiatives. The law also establishes a National
Education and Training Foundation with the
explicit goal of fostering international
cooperation in the area of environmental
education. During the first stage of this plan,
EPA intends to implement the National
Environmental Education Act with a special
focus on the Mexican-U.S. border area.
In addition, SEDUE and EPA will develop
public service messages to be distributed to
newspapers and radio and television stations
in the border area. These bilingual messages
will encourage actions, like water
conservation, waste minimization, and basic
home sanitation, that individuals and families
can take to help protect the border
environment. Through such public service
messages SEDUE and EPA will publicize not
only the importance of broad public
participation in environmental protection, but
also the active cooperation of the two nations
through their respective environmental
agencies.
29
-------
Improving Understanding
of the Border Environment
One of the major objectives of this first stage
of the border plan is to improve Mexican-U.S.
understanding of environmental conditions in
the border area. Thus this plan includes
several activities that will generate information
on the current quality of environmental
resources, like airsheds and ground water, and
on the amount, concentrations, and sources of
pollution in the border area. The information
collected during the first stage of this plan will
help define Mexican-U.S. activities during the
second stage (1995-2000).
Waste-Related Studies
Besides quantifying the sources and
destinations of hazardous wastes, SEDUE and
EPA will collect information on the sites now
being used for treatment and/or disposal. The
two agencies will inventory the sites on both
sides of the border that are currently accepting
hazardous wastes generated in the border
area. This information will be used to assess
hazardous waste treatment and disposal
capacity needs in the border area, and
determine how those needs can be met
legally.
SEDUE and EPA also will begin to collect
information on the sites that have been used
in the past to dispose of hazardous wastes
illegally, and that still may be in use today. To
that end, EPA will explore ways of using
existing U.S. technology, including air
surveillance technology, to help identify illegal
hazardous waste disposal sites on the Mexican
side of the border.
During the first stage of this plan, SEDUE
and EPA also will assess environmental
problems associated with muncipal solid waste
disposal in the border area. By 1994 the two
agencies will determine the number, locations,
and types of facilities needed for disposal of
solid wastes in light of projected future
economic and population growth.
Ground Water and Surface Water
Monitoring Programs
Over the past several years communities on
both sides of the Mexican-U.S. border have
expressed concerns about the possible
contamination of transboundary water
resources supplying drinking water to those
communities. However, little is understood
about the extent of such deterioration, because
comprehensive water quality monitoring has
not been conducted in the border area.
Therefore, during the first stage of this
border plan, SEDUE and EPA will work with
the IBWC to identify transboundary
ground water aquifers and determine the
extent to which those aquifers are
contaminated or threatened with
contamination. The three agencies will
cooperate to compile an inventory of shared
ground water resources and an estimate of
current and projected demands on such
ground water. A monitoring program will be
established to determine the current quality of
transboundary ground water, and to collect
information on possible sources of
contamination. This ground water monitoring
network will build on monitoring efforts
already underway in both countries.
Through the regular exchange of
ground water data, SEDUE and EPA will be
able to characterize trends in transboundary
ground water quality. Such trend information
will help both agencies identify sources of
contamination and, if necessary, develop
ground water pollution control strategies.
In addition, SEDUE, EPA, the IBWC, and
the Texas Water Commission will cooperate to
expand the current surface water quality
monitoring network on the Rio Grande along
the Texas border from El Paso to Brownsville.
The network will be expanded to monitor all
water pollutants listed in EPA's drinking
water standards and SEDUE's water quality
criteria. The monitoring program for the Rio
Grande will help the IBWC assess
pretreatment measures needed for industrial
effluent and identify possible sources of water
pollution.
Pesticide Information Exchange
SEDUE and EPA will exchange information on
the health and ecological risks posed by
pesticide use in the border area. They also will
develop cooperative programs to help train
farmers, applicators, and dealers in the proper
use and disposal of agricultural chemicals.EPA
will continue to assist SEDUE in the analysis
of chemical products and residues, the
training of chemists, and the management of
30
-------
joint quality assurance programs.
Mexico imports many of its pesticides from
the United States, and some of those
pesticides may be used in ways that are not
allowed in the United States. To help control
exports posing potential health risks, the Bush
Administration favors legislation that prohibits
the export of pesticides banned in the United
States for human health reasons, and that
places strict conditions on the export of other
unregistered pesticides.
Comparative Risk Assessment
At the end of 1994, SEDUE and EPA will
review progress made during the first stage of
this plan. The two agencies will assess the
environmental data collected, and, in
cooperation with state and local officials on
both sides of the border, they will compare
the environmental risks that remain in the
border area. On the basis of that comparative
risk assessment, they will set priorities for
further cooperative actions during the second
stage (1995-2000) of this plan. The general
public, the private sector, and
non-government organizations will be
invited to participate in this review and
redirection of ongoing Mexican-U.S. efforts to
protect the border environment.
Periodic Reports on
Border Environmental Quality
SEDUE and EPA are committed to sharing
with border communities the most recent
information on environmental quality in the
border area. Communities need, and have a
right to know, that information, because it is
the basis for informed judgments on the
success of environmental protection efforts,
and on the direction of future efforts.
Consequently, SEDUE and EPA will
aggregate border environmental data that will
be collected as a part of this plan, or that
already are being collected by different
agencies of the two governments. These data
will be published periodically and distributed
widely in the border area.
Public
Participation
Both SEDUE and EPA recognize that the
people who live and work along the
Mexican-U.S. border must play an essential
role in binational plans and activities to
protect the border environment. Both agencies
will take several steps to ensure that public
participation is incorporated into the ongoing
review of actions undertaken during the first
stage of this plan (1992-1994), and in the
planning for the next stage (1995-2000).
At the national level, Mexico and the United
States will institutionalize public participation
in this plan in somewhat different ways. But
in both cases public participation will be an
integral part of the planning and
implementation of bilateral efforts to protect
the border environment.
In Mexico, the public now participates in
environmental policy through municipal
Ecological Committees, which are made up of
representatives from unions, non-government
institutions, professional and trade
associations, and the media. In the United
States, EPA will establish a formal Border Plan
Public Advisory Committee to provide public
input into the plan. Although these groups
will have formal responsibility for advising
their respective government agencies, SEDUE
and EPA will encourage them to meet
together periodically, freely exchange ideas,
and fashion collaborative recommendations to
both SEDUE and EPA.
State and local governments will be invited
to provide their advice and expertise to this
border plan through participation in the
various binational workgroups established
under the 1983 border agreement. This
working-level involvement will help mesh the
technical expertise and economic resources of
federal, state, and local governments. Direct
participation by state and local governments is
especially important on the U.S. side of the
border, since those governments play an
important role in implementing U.S.
environmental law.
At the local level, shared environmental
concerns are already the subject of
considerable transborder interaction. Mayors,
industry groups, and community
organizations in many sister cities meet
31
-------
regularly with their counterparts across the
border to discuss mutual responses to
areawide environmental problems, and to
identify initiatives that may require the
involvement of their respective federal
governments. SEDUE and EPA will encourage
this kind of cross-border interaction, and both
agencies will invite local participation when
they address local environmental issues.
During the implementation of this plan,
SEDUE and EPA also will consult regularly
with other government agencies, trade
associations, and non-government
organizations that have responsibilities for
protecting public health and ecological
resources in the border area. In particular, the
two agencies will solicit the advice and
recommendations of the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO) as to the
priorities and schedule for this plan.
Funding
During the first year of this plan, SEDUE and
EPA are planning to invest about $326 million
to protect environmental quality in the border
area. These funds include almost $290 million
in construction projects to improve or expand
wastewater treatment, waste disposal, and
transportation systems.
On October 23, 1991, SEDUE announced
that it would spend at least $460 million to
help protect border environmental quality
during the first phase of this plan. These
funds will be dedicated to sewer systems and
wastewater treatment facilities ($220 million),
solid waste collection and disposal ($25
million), transportation and road
improvements ($168 million), land acquisition
($43 million), and contingency funds ($4
million). During the first year of this plan,
SEDUE intends to spend approximately $147
million on a variety of environmental projects,
primarily in nine Mexican border cities.
(Figure 4 shows SEDUE funding by activity,
and Figure 5 shows SEDUE funding by city.)
In President Bush's FY 1993 budget for EPA,
$170 million has been requested for
wastewater treatment construction projects in
the border area. In the proposed FY 1993
budget for the Department of State, $4.5
million has been included for the IBWC as
additional funding for the Tijuana/San Diego
and Nuevo Laredo/Laredo international
wastewater treatment facilities. Another $25
million has been requested in the FY 1993
budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to be used for drinking water projects in the
U.S. colonias. All told, the President's FY 1993
budget proposes to spend $199.5 million on
wastewater treatment and drinking water
systems in the border area. (See Figure 6.)
EPA's proposed FY 1993 budget also
includes $2.7 million in personnel costs and
$6.6 million in contractor costs to be used for
air quality monitoring, technical assistance,
emergency planning and response,
environmental education, and other activities
in the border area. (See Table 4.) Thus EPA's
proposed FY 1993 budget for the border area
totals more than $179 million.
The President also has proposed FY 1993
funding for border area environmental
projects to be carried out by other agencies.
The FY 1993 budget request for the
Department of State includes $30 million to be
used by the IBWC in large part for
32
-------
water-related facilities in the border area. Two
million dollars have been requested for the
Department of Health and Human Services for
border area public health projects. The FY
1993 budget for the U.S. Export-Import Bank
includes $5.4 million for credit and loan
guarantees for environmental projects in the
border area. All told, the President's FY 1993
budget request includes more than $240
million for protecting the environment in the
border area.
The private sector also will provide some
funding for the projects outlined in this border
plan. One example is the planned Chamizal
reclamation project in Ciudad Juarez.
Construction of this project, which is the first
part of a $70 million wastewater treatment
system for Ciudad Juarez, is scheduled to
begin in early 1992. Although most of the
funding will be provided by the Mexican
government, the state of Chihuahua, and the
city of Ciudad Juarez, the local maquiladora
industry association has proposed to assume
30 percent of total project costs.
Figure 4
SEDUE Funding by Activity (First Year)
Sewers and Wastewater Treatment
$60 million
Solid Waste
ollection and Dispose
$16.6 million
Land Acquisition
$11 million
Public
Transportation
$19 4 million
Road Improvements
$40 million
Total - $147 million
Table 4
Proposed EPA Border Area
Personnel and Contract Funding
(FY 1993)(in $ thousands)
Personnel Contracts
Office of the
Administrator
Office of Water
Office of Air
and Radiation
213.9
731.0
336.8
100.0
2100.0
Office of
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
Office of
International Activities
TOTAL
1077.0
345.6
2200.0
2200.0
$2,704.3 $6,600.0
Figure 5
SEDUE Funding by City (First Year)
San Luis Rio Colorado
million
Total - $147 million
iles
$7 million
Piedras Negras
million
Figure 6
Proposed U.S. Border Area Wastewater
Treatment and Drinking Water Construction
Grants (FY 1993)
Tyuana/San Diego Wastewater Treatment
$65 million
San Diego
Wastewater Treatment
$40 million
Colonias Wastewater Treatment
$50 million
Colonias
Drinking Water
Systems (USDA)
$25 million
Total - $ 199.5 million
IB WC
$4 5 million
Nogales/Nogales
Wastewater
Treatment
$5 million
Mexicali/Calexico
Wastewater
Treatment
$10 million
33
-------
This document is an EPA summary of the
information contained in the formal
Integrated Environmental Plan for the
Mexican-U.S. Border Area negotiated and
agreed to by Mexico's Secretaria de
Desarrollo Urbano y Ecologia (SEDUE) and
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Copies of the formal plan can be obtained
by writing:
The Office of International Activities
(A-106)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
34
------- |