BORDER ENVIRONMENT
by Ana María Ruiz-Brown, Staff Writer - Translator

First Annual Meeting on the Border Environment

Specialists in conservation of the border environment from the United States and Mexico met March 5-7 in Juárez to discuss ways to reduce increased border pollution near the US- Mexico border.

The event, the First Annual Meeting on the Border Environment, was designed to integrate a forum of non-governmental and community-based organizations. The Texas Center for Policy Studies and ITESM-Juárez organized it, and conducted the meeting in both Spanish and English.

Some problems discussed at the meeting were water pollution, irregular city growth, population increase, industrialization and the environmental contamination of the border cities.

"The panorama looked really serious, but there are more possibilities than ever to do something about it," Laura Durazo, director of the Border Project in Tijuana, said.

Members of the Legal Funds for Sierra Blanca took advantage of the meeting to express their opposition to the nuclear waste disposal project at Sierra Blanca, Texas, El Diario reported.

The project is a criminal alliance between the government of Texas, universities and nuclear industry in the United States, Andrés Marez, member of the Legal Funds for Sierra Blanca, told the meeting. The nuclear dump is planned to be built in a place where most of their inhabitants are Mexican-American and do not have the resources to oppose the project, Marez said.

Environmental activists have opposed the waste-dump for nearly a decade, according to the El Paso Times. Their main argument is that the site is in an earthquake zone, representing a threat for the Rio Grande, while state officials contend the site is safe, the Times said.

The Tigua Indians also claimed that the tribe has the aboriginal right to possess the property where the radioactive dump site is located. On March 4, the Tiguas sued directors of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority.

"The Tiguas never relinquished their aboriginal rights and . . . the United States has jurisdiction over the land under the Indian Non-Intercourse Act of 1790, which governs the purchase of Indian lands," the lawsuit contended, according to the Times.

"We're trying to preserve our land. The state doesn't have the right to mess it up with a nuclear dump," Tigua tribal Gov. Vince Munoz told the Times.

Sources: El Diario and El Paso Times



Controversy Over Sand Dunes

Environmental groups completed procedures to protect the ecology of the Samalayuca sand dune area near Juárez during the First Annual Meeting on the Border Environment.

The measure focused on support for the investigation and preservation of desert zones in the north and central parts of Mexico, including Samalayuca. It came after an earlier public meeting of parties concerned with the Samalayuca area.

Environmental organizations from the states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Nuevo León signed the "Alliance for the Chihuahuan Desert" agreement. It includes not only the dunes of Samalayuca in Chihuahua but also deserts from Durango, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Sonora, San Luis Potosí and the Bolsón de Mapimí.

The Samalayuca dunes are in legal dispute: Ejidatarios (people who borrow land from the government to work temporarily), disagree with the new measure taken by the State Government of Chihuahua.

To control sand mining, the State Government of Chihuahua requested ejidatarios from Villa Luz, a report on the environmental impact caused by the sand mining in Samalayuca. Simultaneously, academic members of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) did an environmental study of the zone. The UACJ team suggested limiting the areas open to sand mining, El Diario reported.

The study is very important to evaluate if the ejidatarios can continue extracting sand, Jose Treviño Fernández, head of the Department of Ecology of the State Government, told El Diario.

Environmental organizations, ecologists, and the private sector will also analyze the report to evaluate if sand mining is justified, Treviño Fernández said. If the ejidatarios do not prove technically that sand operations in Samalayuca are under control, then they would only have a term of 10 months to continue working in the area, only to fulfill preestablished contracts, Treviño concluded.

The study was part of a "dirty game" to legitimize the party in power and benefit the economic interests of Chihuahua Cement and Enrique Terrazas, ejidatario leader Jaime Andujo Chávez had told El Diario earlier in the month.

The dunes are home to cave paintings, earthenware pots and fossils in archaeological sites, 210 plant species, 250 species of fauna, and 54 species of birds, including Monarch butterflies and some that are rare and native to Samalayuca, according to Treviño Fernández.

Source: El Diario