Frontera NorteSur, August 1999

Deadline Passes For Emissions Tests

July 16 was the deadline for vehicle owners in Cd. Juárez to visit one of 25 inspection stations and have their cars inspected for meeting environmental standards, after that date, the fee for the inspection would double. Fifteen thousand cars were approved between June 16 and July 13.

Many who waited until the last minute to have their vehicles inspected were met with long lines, and at some stations inspection devices broke down forcing customers to have to go elsewhere, and wait in line again.

There are over 500 thousand vehicles being driven in Cd. Juárez, and only 20 thousand have received their sticker, and five thousand have been outright rejected, so far this year.

Cars from 1978 to 1984 are said to contribute most heavily to pollution. Drivers in unapproved cars will get cited, but only if they have been pulled over for another matter. Fees for unapproved vehicles will range from 689 to 863 pesos ( approximately $70-85 U.S.).

According to Norma Ortega, director of the Vehicular Verification department of the Environmental Center, 85 percent of all air pollution can be attributed to vehicles running without ecological improvements.

American Cars To Blame For City's Pollution Problems

A large percent of vehicles in Cd. Juárez are American made cars that are too old or ill kept to pass emissions standards tests. The cars are regularly auctioned off to used car dealers from México, but shouldn't even be allowed to come over the border if they can't pass emissions tests because of a 6-year-old state law that requires that all used U.S. vehicles coming over the border must pass an emissions test administered by Customs.

However, according to Luis Carlos Salmeron, director of air quality normality for the state of Chihuahua in Cd. Juárez, Customs "just doesn't care." Mexican Customs made it apparent that they don't want this responsibility when they issued a document to officials for the Department of Air Quality in Cd. Juárez saying that the responsibility should go to the used car dealerships.

But according to Gerardo Tarin Torres, a biologist at the Department of Air Quality for the state of Chihuahua, the responsibility should not go to the dealer." A car dealership's purpose is to sell cars and make money." He believes such testing will end the used car business in the city.

According to El Paso Times, as of last year, more than 60 percent of vehicles in Cd. Juárez were built before 1986 and 5 percent were from after 1994.

According to Alma Figueroa Jiménez, director of ecology and civil protection in Juárez, "America is sending its junk over here."

City's Serious Air Pollution Problems Continue

In a special report on the environment in the July El Diario looked at many factors being effected by pollution in the city, and the following is a translated excerpt from their report on condition of the air in the border region.

According to U.S. environmental specialists, in the last two decades, the border region has surpassed the minimal norms for atmospheric quality with excessive concentrations of ozone, carbon monoxide and other substances dangerous to residents' health.

The five monitoring stations that are in the Cd. Juárez area have registered accumulated contaminant levels at between 50 and 60 Imecas (quality of metropolitan air index), according to reports by the Municipal Department of Environmental and Civil Protection.

In the last two months environmental organizations and authorities from both sides of the border have designed a program to inform residents of existing environmental conditions. An alarm has been in place since March of this year called "Day of Action Against the Ozone." On "alarm days," which have occurred, it is recommended that residents avoid exercising outside and driving if possible. Special treatment needs to be given to children and the elderly who are more susceptible to the ill effects of pollution during these dangerous times.

A study is continuing to scientifically determine the health effects of pollution on residents of Cd. Juárez. It is believed that 88 percent of the pollution is produced by the 500 thousand vehicles that are driving throughout the city daily. However, without these vehicles it would be absolutely impossible for the industrial sector, let alone the economic and social sectors, of the city to function normally. According to El Diario "Without vehicles, we have nothing."

However, the city has arrived at its tolerable limit. According to the Texas Office of Air Control, an extension of the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) "The condition of the air in Cd. Juárez and El Paso over the last 20 years has not complied with the environmental quality norms for ozone, carbon monoxide or inhalable particles.

According to Victoriano Garza, investigator for the Center for Environmental Methods Study at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, in a recent report, the principal sources of pollution are industrial activities and transportation, as well as dust from the unpaved streets in the city, the incineration of solid waste, the brick industry, the smoke stacks and the operation of cement plants.

Total emissions into the air is more that 605,760 tons per year. One percent of this can be attributed to industry, four percent to the service sector, seven percent to the erosion of roads. The major producer of emissions is transportation at 88 percent.

There are approximately 400 maquiladoras in Cd. Juárez, most of which are assembly plants for circuits and other electronic devices and the basic emissions from these plants is hydrocarbons.

Source: El Paso Times, El Diario, El Norte