U.S. EPA News Release:

EPA’s U.S.-Mexico Border 2025 Program Selects Environmental Projects for Implementation in the Border Region

Funding $552,899 for eight projects

SAN DIEGO (Oct. 27, 2021) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in coordination with the North American Development Bank (NADB), has selected eight environmental and public health projects to be implemented on both sides of the border in the California/Baja California and Arizona/Sonora border regions through the new U.S.-Mexico Border 2025 program. The agency will award $552,899 for the programs, and an additional $574,949 will be matched by the recipient organizations.

The projects meet the objectives of the U.S.-Mexico Border 2025 program: to reduce air pollution; improve water quality; promote sustainable materials management and waste management; and improve joint preparedness for and responses to environmental emergencies.

“The new Border 2025 funding will improve public health and the environment for U.S. and Mexican communities within the border region, while advancing the EPA priorities of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and environmental justice,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Acting Regional Administrator Deborah Jordan.

“It is an honor for NADB to continue to work on Border 2025 in collaboration with EPA and the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT),” stated Calixto Mateos, NADB Managing Director. “We are excited to see the continuation of this successful program as well as the emphasis being placed on climate change and environmental justice.”

Border 2025 Project Descriptions

Secretaría de Salud del Estado de Baja California (Ministry of Health of Baja California) will develop a GIS-based analysis of existing air monitoring data, population information, and data from medical facilities in Mexicali and Imperial Valley. The project will help to determine the relative vulnerability of the populations and use this information to guide the development of a public health outreach campaign.

Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental (Border Environmental Education Project), a non-profit, will develop a pilot project to prevent dumping of garbage in overburdened communities in Tijuana near the Alamar River, which connects to the Tijuana River and thus impacts San Diego County communities. The project will identify waste at its source, host community workshops to raise awareness and train community residents in the management of household waste, and implement sorted waste collection services in Colonia Anexa Miramar. 

Instituto de Planeación Ambiental y Calidad de Vida (Institute of Environmental Planning and Quality of Life) will strengthen the Solid Waste Management Plan of the Kumiai Indigenous community of San Antonio Necua, located in the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico. The project will reduce waste burning, dumping, and implement waste alternatives like composting, as well as train waste management leaders and 80 families in the Kumaiai community.

Environmental Health Coalition, a binational non-profit, will conduct a socio-environmental vulnerability and solid waste analysis in the forested area of the Alamar River to establish an environmental management plan for the cleanup, rehabilitation, and prevention of waste along the transboundary watershed.  They will educate residents on trash mitigation through river cleanups and community presentations and will implement a plan to protect the watershed for long-term sustainability.

Arizona State University will work with emergency preparedness and response leaders and key stakeholders to evaluate and enhance six binational Sister-City Joint Contingency plans. The project will include two notification drills to test the plans for municipalities, fire departments and other key partners’ ability to make timely response with cross border counterparts.

Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano y Ecología (Urban Development and Ecology Secretariat of Sonora) will identify alternatives for water reuse to reduce heavy metals in the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico, Arizona. The grantee will develop a prototype for treating wastewater using green infrastructure for reuse purposes such as irrigation of green areas, construction and toilet flushing. It will also evaluate the quality of the plant discharges into the Santa Cruz River and inform a Water Reuse Master Plan for City of Nogales, Sonora. 

Cocopah Indian Tribe will assess water quality in the Colorado River upstream of Cocopah tribal lands. The tribe will also develop a design for a wetland/riparian restoration project to reuse treated water. This project will benefit the tribal community and will complement ongoing environmental efforts related to assessing climate change vulnerability and climate adaptation planning.

Borderlands Restoration Network seeks to improve best management practices for sediment control on both sides of the Arizona/Sonora border. The grantee will construct 50 erosion control structures to reduce sediment transport and reestablish native vegetation communities. The project will also include a binational watershed restoration workshop for regional practitioners and workshops for the general public.

These funds were awarded in partnership with the North American Development Bank under the Border 2025: U.S.-Mexico Environmental Program, a binational effort to protect human health and the environment in the U.S.-Mexico border region. The border region is defined as the area within 62 miles (100 kilometers) on either side of the border, as defined by the 1983 La Paz Agreement.

For more information on the Border 2025 Program, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder.

For most recent information see our newsletters here: https://www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder/region-9-publications-and-successes

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