&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
BORDER 2012: U.S. - MEXICO ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM
To protect public health and the environment in the U.S.-Mexico border
region, consistent with the principles of sustainable development"
Border 2012 is a 10-year, binational, results-oriented environmental program for the U.S.-Mexico border
region, which has been developed by the EPA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretaria
de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Mexico's Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources),
Secretaria de Salud (Mexico's Secretariat of Health), the U.S. border Tribes, and the environmental agencies
from each of the ten border states. The proposed Border 2012 Program is the latest multi-year, binational
planning effort to be implemented under the La Paz Agreement and succeeds Border XXI, a five-year program
that ended in 2000.
Background
For decades, the U.S. and Mexico have collaborated
on efforts to protect the environment and health of
border communities. The formal foundation for these
binational efforts is the La Paz Agreement signed by
Presidents De la Madrid and Reagan in 1983. The
agreement is implemented through multi-year
binational programs such as Border XXI, which was
initiated in 1996 with a five-year plan for addressing
the most challenging environmental and
environmentally-related health problems in the
region.
Although most of the Border XXI projects were
implemented at the local level, its organizational
structure emphasized border-wide coordination and
planning. Nine border-wide workgroups — each
focused on a particular environmental program, such
as air quality or hazardous waste management —
coordinated the efforts of various federal, state, tribal
and local governmental activities in the border area.
The new Border 2012 Program builds upon the
successes achieved under Border XXI while also
establishing a regionally-focused border plan to
facilitate environmental priority setting and planning
at the regional and local levels.
See Fact Sheet for 1 page summary
A New Approach
The proposed Border 2012 emphasizes a bottom-up
approach, anticipating that local decision making,
priority setting and project implementation will best
address environmental issues in the border region.
Border 2012 will emphasize concrete measurable
results, public participation, transparency, and timely
access to environmental information.
The Border 2012 Program proposes some key
changes from Border XXI including:
• new mission statement
• ten year planning period
• integration of natural resource issues, pollution
prevention and environmental information into the
activities of all coordinating bodies
• new organizational structure that focuses on regional
workgroups to facilitate regional- and local-level
planning and priority setting.
We invite public comments related to all aspects of the
propose Border 2012 plan. Individuals can submit
comments directly by filling out the public comment
form at:
Interested parties can also mail or fax comments to the
EPA Border Offices at the addresses and fax numbers
listed below:
EPA Washington Office
1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20460
[T] 202-564-6401
[F] 202-565-2412
EPA El Paso Border Office
4050 Rio Bravo, Suite 100
El Paso, TX 79902
[T] 915-533-7273
[F] 915-533-2327
EPA San Diego Border Office
610 West Ash St., Suite 905
San Diego, CA 92101
[T] 619-235-4765
[F] 619-235-4771
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BORDER 2012: U.S. - MEXICO ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM
The major features of the Border 2012 program are the coordinating bodies,
goals and measurable objectives, and reporting results to the public.
Coordinating Bodies
Border 2012 is organized around coordinating bodies.
These coordinating bodies include the following: the
National Coordinators, four regional (geographically-
focused) workgroups, three border-wide workgroups,
and three policy forums.
A) National Coordinators. Consistent with the
requirements of the La Paz Agreement, the National
Coordinators will monitor and manage
implementation of the Border 2012 Program and
ensure cooperation and communication among all
coordinating bodies.
B) Regional Workgroups. Providing the foundation of
the Border 2012 Program, four multi-media,
regionally-focused workgroups will support the
efforts of local task forces and coordinate activities at
the regional and local level. The proposed regional
workgroups are the following:
• California-Baja California
• Arizona-Sonora
• New Mexico-Texas-Chihuahua
• Texas-Coahuila-Nuevo Leon-Tamaulipas
Each regional workgroup will be co-chaired by one
state and one federal representative from each
country.
C) Border-wide Workgroups. Border-wide
workgroups will concentrate on issues that are multi-
regional (identified as a priority by two or more
regional workgroups) and primarily federal in nature
(requiring direct, high-level, and sustained leadership
by federal program partners in the United States and
Mexico). Three border-wide workgroups will have
federal U.S. and Mexican co-chairs for the following
issues: environmental health, emergency preparedness
and response, and cooperative enforcement and
compliance.
D) Policy Forums. Policy Forums will have a media-
specific focus and will concentrate on broad policy
issues that require an on-going dialogue between the
two countries. Three policy forums will be
established to address policy issues and provide
technical assistance to the regional and border-wide
workgroups in the following areas: air; water; and
hazardous waste, solid waste, and toxic substances.
Goals and Objectives
Border 2012 establishes the following five border-
wide environmental goals for the U.S.-Mexico border
region:
• Reduce water contamination
• Reduce air pollution
• Reduce land pollution
• Reduce exposure to pesticides, particularly
children's exposure
• Reduce exposure to chemicals as a result of
accidental chemical releases and/or deliberate acts of
terrorism.
For each of the above goals, measurable objectives
have been proposed. In all, there are twenty-two
measurable objectives in the areas of: homes
connected to potable water, wastewater collection and
treatment systems; surface and groundwater water
quality; ambient air quality standards; human risk
from air toxics; voluntary compliance in
maquiladoras; hazardous and solid waste capacity in
the border region; hazardous waste violations at ports
of entry; tire piles; brownfields; pesticide exposure;
contingency planning; and binational emergency
planning.
See Fact Sheet for 1 page summary
Reporting Results
Every two years the coordinating bodies will publish an implementation report that describes the status of current and
proposed activities under the Border 2012 program. In addition, comprehensive mid-term and final progress reports that
describe progress on meeting the goals and objectives of the program, including environmental indicators, will be
published in 2007 and 2012 respectively.
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