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Region 6: South Central
  Serving Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and 66 Tribes
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Perspectives from the Regional Administrator

   
Mexico Border Infrastructure

Regional Administrator hosts border tour to see accomplishments and discuss plans to meet the challenges remaining

Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene was host to EPA Chief Financial Officer Charlie Johnson, Tad Gallion, representing the House Appropriations Committee, and EPA International Affairs Deputy Jerry Clifford on a tour of the U.S. Mexico border. The tour highlighted many successful projects including the Juarez water plants designed to assist 1.5 million people. It also presented an overview of ongoing border challenges, especially water and wastewater infrastructure needs, which EPA is working to address.

The group was joined by Border Environment Cooperation Commission General Manager Fernando Macias and Deputy Javier Cabrera, as the tour started early in the morning with a bird's-eye view of the area from the top of the Franklin Mountains. The Commission is a binational agency that works directly with communities in the 200-kilometer-wide border region. Its action priorities are drinking water, sewage, sanitation and municipal solid-waste management.

The tour also included stops in several communities facing unique environmental challenges, including the largest known collection of used tires in the border area - four million tires and growing. Because they provide a lush breeding ground for disease-spreading mosquitoes, other insects and rodents, the massive tire piles pose a health problem for residents on both sides of the border.

Plans for disposing of these tires were explained as part of several presentations the group heard from local officials. They described their plans to address environmental challenges facing their communities, and the continuing need for government support.
587 Richard Greene and the group survey the El Paso border area from the top of the Franklin Mountains.
The group inspects a new water treatment facility on the border.
The group visits the largest known used tire pile in the border area.
Local officials brief on environmental issues.

The U.S.-Mexico Border Infrastructure Program

The U.S.-Mexico border runs 2,000 miles from San Diego-Tijuana on the Pacific to Brownsville-Matamoros near the Gulf of Mexico. The border area is commonly considered the territory 100 kilometers north and south of the boundary, and it includes a combined U.S. and Mexican population of over 10.6 million throughout ten U.S. and Mexican states. The area's population is expected to double by 2020 through migration motivated by the expansion of border industrial and urban centers, both domestic and international, and natural increase. This expected population explosion rivals the growth projected for the fastest-growing U.S. states over that same twenty year period.

Environmental conditions on the U.S.-Mexico border are significantly influenced by the rapid growth occurring in the area. Much of that growth is attributed to Mexico's maquiladora program. Maquiladoras are product assembly factories which employ more than 800,000 people in the border region. While the Maquiladoras have been successful at creating jobs, the facilities' wastes and resource demands are considerable. Maquiladoras are not the only stress on the environment; however, the sector tends to act as a magnet for migration within Mexico, as well as a driver of population growth. This population growth results in sprawling development, increase in motor vehicles and traffic congestion, and greater waste, air pollution, and depletion of natural resources. The new Border 2012 Program, a partnership among federal, state, local, and U.S. Tribal governments, strives to protect public health and the environment in the U.S.-Mexico Border region, and represents a framework for cooperation without legislation.

Environmental conditions and human health in the U.S.-Mexico border area are influenced to a significant degree by the quality of available water sources. Many waterways flow across or along the bi-national border. Unfortunately, water and wastewater infrastructure has not kept up with the rapid population growth. This has resulted in a deterioration of the surface water quality and an increase in the incidence of water bourne diseases. Therefore, the Border Program for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Construction Funding was established to ensure that everyone along the U.S.-Mexico border has access to adequate drinking water and wastewater treatment. To date, Congress has provided over $392 million for use in the development, design, and construction of water and wastewater projects in the border states.
U.S. Mexican Border Map
Border Good News Stories
 

 

 
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