Frontera NorteSur November  2002

Hidalgo, Texas Waste-Water Treatment Plant Under Construction

The construction of a new waste-water treatment plant in Hidalgo, Texas is on schedule despite heavy recent rains, according to Ruben Puente, the city's director of Public Works. Hidalgo is located just south of McAllen, Texas and across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. 

Hidalgo's current sewage plant only treats 400,000 gallons of waste water a day, according to an article in the Reynosa newspaper El Mañana. The new plant will process more than 1.4 million gallons of sewage per day and should serve the city for at least twenty years. 

Construction at the site began on June 25, 2002. Juan Díaz, project supervisor for R.P. Constructors, told El Mañana that the plant should be ready to begin operation in June 2003. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), October 1, 2002. 

A House Fire in Creel Illustrates Contrasts near Chihuahua's Copper Canyon

Chihuahua's Copper Canyon, known in Spanish as the Barranca del Cobre, is said to rival the US's Grand Canyon. However, despite its wealth of mountains, waterfalls and cacti forests, the area lacks other things. Copper Canyon's indigenous inhabitants, known as the Tarahumara or Rarámuri, are facing considerable challenges in the form of bad harvests, malnutrition, illegal tree cutting and narcotrafficking. 

Another contrast is to be found in Creel, the city that is known as the gateway to Copper Canyon. According to a Chihuahua City newspaper, El Heraldo, Creel (population 6,500) will soon have an international airport to bring more tourists to the area. However, as was evidenced on Saturday, October 5, the area lacks basic community services like modern fire-fighting equipment.

On that day, the wooden home of the Moreno family caught on fire. To fight the blaze and contain it from spreading, passersby quickly formed a bucket brigade between the house and a nearby stream.  Soon, neighbors were running to the scene as well. 

Later, the city's antiquated water tanker that serves as a fire truck showed up at the house. Despite its best efforts, the tanker was outperformed by the stream of buckets and neighbors that turned their garden hoses against the fire. 

By the time fire was suffocated, the Moreno family, a couple with three kids, had lost everything including the family car that was parked near the house. Fortunately, Gustavo Moreno, the father of the family, had just been recalled to a nearby lumber mill after a three-month period of no work.

Fernando Pérez Ortiz, Creel's mayor, told El Heraldo that he believed that the city's water tanker was too old. The city now needs a real fire department, he stated. 

Source: El Heraldo (Chihuahua City), October 7, 2002. Article by Pedro Sánchez Briones.

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.

Naco, Sonora and Cochise County, Arizona Sign Emergency Response Plan

On Friday, October 4, the city of Naco, Sonora and Cochise County, Arizona signed an emergency response and prevention plan in Naco's plaza. The plan's signing, which became a regional imperative after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and a December, 2001 Naco landfill fire that took binational forces five days to extinguish, was greeted by music and a crowd of Naco residents and visiting government officials from Mexico and the US. The twin cities of Naco, Sonora and Naco, Arizona are located about 20 miles west of Douglas, Arizona. 

The agreement was signed by Lorenzo Villegas, the mayor of Naco, and Cochise County Supervisor Paul Newman. 

Lauren Volpini, of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that the binational emergency plan was the first to link a city and a county from different sides of the border. However, nine other binational, emergency-response plans have preceded the new agreement, although at the city to city level, said Volpini. 

Also present, from Mexico's PROFEPA, was Enrique Ortiz Espinosa.  Ortiz is PROFEPA's director for environmental emergencies.  PROFEPA (Procuraduría de Federal de Protección del Ambiente) is Mexico's equivalent of the US's EPA. 

Under the agreement, US emergency resources can be deployed to Mexico when needed. Also, both nations will develop plans for mutual prevention and assistance. There will also be joint response training and hazardous spill drills. 

Source: Sierra Vista Herald, October 8, 2002. Article by Cathy Murphy.