US/MEXICO:
Neighbours Try to
Reclaim Polluted Valley
By Enrique Gili
SAN DIEGO, California
(IPS) - A sinuous coil
of murky water winds
through the Tijuana
River Valley. On each
side of the U.S.-Mexican
border, residents eye
each other warily,
caught in the
cross-currents of
political intrigue and
economic polices that
make the floodplain seem
almost orderly by
comparison.
Wedged between the
ocean, the border and
the southern fringes of
suburban San Diego,
California, the valley
is contested territory.
Horse ranchers and bird
fanciers make their home
here, but the valley
also serves as a
flashpoint for migrants
desperately seeking
entry into the United
States. A patchwork of
state, local and federal
agencies with competing
interests makes
collaboration difficult.
Enforcement,
conservation, and
recreation all vie for
top priority.
However, there's one
aspect of border life
everyone can agree upon.
The region is inundated
with trash, the waste of
two large cities,
illegal dumping and
maquiladoras, and is the
victim of neglect. Much
of the
2,700-square-kilometre
watershed is located in
Mexico but the terminus
is an estuary and
Imperial Beach, San
Diego, the last and
southernmost beach town
in California.
At the urging of
Benjamin McCue,
programme manager for
WildCoast, a bi-national
wildlife conservation
and water quality
advocacy group focused
on Baja, California, 200
volunteers armed with
plastics bags, rakes and
shovels recently
attempted the seemingly
impossible -- to
clean-up a tiny sliver
of the valley set aside
as a nature preserve,
known as the Tijuana
River Open Space
Reserve.
"Cross-border pollution
is the number one border
threat," said McCue.
"The threat is not what
comes over the fence,
it's what comes under
it. Pollution affects
the health of everyone."
Pollution doesn't
respect the border. Each
time it rains, a portion
of Tijuana's waste flows
through the estuary and
into the Pacific Ocean,
shutting down local
beaches for days at a
time and affecting the
quality of life for
residents. Local
residents are seeking
common ground to combat
the problem.
"To comprehensively deal
with the Tijuana River,
we need to involve
everyone impacted from
ranchers to surfers to
border patrol agents,"
said Paloma Aguirre,
president of the Tijuana
River Citizens Council.
Postcard pretty wetlands
hide hidden trash.
Beneath beds of
wildflowers and lush
vegetation, the preserve
is a catchall for all
manner of debris, tires,
bottles, and plastic. By
mid-morning, volunteers
have accumulated enough
garbage to fill a
shipping container to
haul to the municipal
dump.
Even as clean-up efforts
get underway, certain
border realities are
difficult to ignore or
downplay. Border patrol
agents are actively
pursuing migrants hiding
in the vegetation,
leading more than one
volunteer to quip it's
doubtful "illegals" are
slipping across the
border to pick up trash.
The magnitude and scope
of the pollution problem
largely depends on whom
you ask.
"I think the perception
of industrial pollution
is higher than it
actually is, not to say
there isn't a problem,"
said Dr. Richard
Gersberg, a public
health professor at San
Diego State University.
"It's not like we have
major, heavy industry."
Discussions on the root
causes of pollution in
the valley often lead to
debates over who
benefits from free trade
on the border.
Maquiladoras --
factories that make
goods exclusively for
export -- form the
backbone of Tijuana's
economy. Trade
agreements like NAFTA
have made the city an
ideal location for
multinational
corporations to set up
shop, although labour
activists have long
complained that the
conditions at many
plants are exploitive
and even abusive.
Lured by the promise of
jobs, an estimated
50,000 new arrivals
settle here each year.
Unincorporated colonias
then arise to
accommodate the influx
of people. With nearly
1.5 million people
living in the vicinity
and a growth rate of 4.5
percent, Tijuana's
infrastructure is
overburdened. Hundreds
of thousands of people
in the city are not
hooked up to the
municipal sewage system,
forcing the city to play
catch-up.
Twenty-five million
gallons of Tijuana's
sewage is processed each
day, an impressive
number except for the
fact that only 36
percent of the city has
adequate sanitation.
However, the city has
made significant strides
in meeting the needs of
previously underserved
communities. Since 2001,
200,000 households have
been added to the public
utility system. But with
hundreds of thousands
more residents living
off the grid, raw
untreated sewage
presents an ongoing
problem.
It's the kind of
scenario San Diego city
councilman Ben Hueso
finds daunting. "If you
think of thousands of
homes that aren't
plugged into the sewage
system, you can imagine
them collectively
flushing their toilets
at the same time [and]
what that would cause in
terms of run-off," he
said.
Much of the overflow
winds up in his
district, significantly
impacting the economy of
San Diego's Southbay
region. Plumes of raw
sewage entering the
Pacific Ocean mean beach
closures for seaside
towns that rely on
tourism.
Hueso also acknowledges
an unwillingness -- some
might say an
intransigence -- on the
part of U.S. authorities
towards their neighbours.
"No one wants to talk
about investing money in
Mexico when there are so
many unmet needs here.
That's a political hot
potato," he said.
But if you ask the
volunteers of WildCoast,
they might say that
sometimes, doing the
right thing means
leading by example even
if the outcome is far
from certain.
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