Frontera NorteSur December 2002-January  2003

Sand Stolen from Baja California, Some Sent to US

This week, Mexico's Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente (Federal Environmental Protection Office, Profepa) officially suspended the activities of 70 companies that, in 2002, have illegally mined 450,000 tons of Baja California sand to export to the US. Stripped from areas surrounding Tecate and Ensenada, the sand is used to restore US beaches that have suffered  erosion from tides, bad weather and other natural phenomena. Other sand is illegally mined and used in Mexican construction projects, according to an article in the Tijuana newspaper, Frontera (no relationship to FNS). 

Despite Profepa's increased enforcement of mining regulations, the theft of BC sand still continues according to observations made by Frontera newspaper's staff. As in the past, sand-filled trucks avoid environmental officials by staying off of main highways and using back, dirt roads instead. According to Profepa, there are at least 36 areas where sand is being illegally extracted. 

At one point between Tecate and Tijuana, residents of El Gandúl and la Presa de El Carrizo say that every day, but generally during the early morning hours, hundreds of trucks take away sand from dry stream beds. 

While the illegal removal of sand threatens the local environment it may later affect community safety. A Tecate environmental official stated that 5,000 residents of the Andalucía neighborhoods could be in danger from winter rains. This is because the course of stream beds and other paths for rain runoff have been altered by sand mining. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), October 17, 2002. Article by Manuel Villegas.

Mexican Feds Respond to Sand Mining Issues

Carlos de la Parra Rentería, the director of the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, Semarnat) in Baja California, told the Tijuana newspaper Frontera (no relationship to FNS) that Semarnat will begin working to better regulate the mining of sand in the state. 

Parra said that Semarnat will establish tougher restrictions on sand mining, especially with regards to people that have begun operations without the proper authorization or without having completed an environmental impact statement. Semarnat will also move against operations that are extracting more sand than permitted or that are mining too quickly the allotted amount of sand. 

The environmental impact studies themselves will be modified, according to Parra, because they currently do not conclude how much sand can be removed from a site without causing damage to the area. 

Jorge Escobar Martínez, the state director of ecology, has said that meetings with US officials will help establish controls for the proper exportation of sand. Other Mexican agencies will help monitor sand-mining concessions. 

Escobar also stated that authorities need to establish which mining areas are in need of restoration because of over-exploitation. According to Escobar, a number of areas have been gravely damaged by sand-mining operations. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), November 5, 2002. Article by Zulema Flores.

Reynosa Floods Affect Thousands

Ten consecutive days of rain in Reynosa have produced that city's worst floods in fifteen years, according to the Reynosa newspaper El Mañana. In some neighborhoods, water is over one meter (three feet) high and is impeding cars and even busses. 

In poorer neighborhoods like Lucio Blanco, Esperanza and Satélite e Independenica, 1,500 people have had water fill their homes. El Mañana noted that these neighborhoods were built on land that was sold by its previous owner because it would flood and was therefore useless. 

The mayor of Reynosa, Serapio Cantú Barragán, went to flooded neighborhoods on Sunday, November 3. Cantú led a group of people that brought clothes, shoes and medical support to the communities. 

The governor of Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington, promised Cantú his absolute and inconditional support, the mayor said. Cantú also stated that he would request funds from the federal government's National Disaster Fund (Fondo Nacional de Desastres). 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), November 4, 2002.