Summary Written by Cyrus Reed , Texas Center for Policy Studies*
June 20, 2001
On Wednesday, June 20th, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) held its 28th Public Meeting of the Board of Directors, in the process certifying five new environmental infrastructure projects within the U.S. -Mexico Border Region at an estimated cost of 44.5 million dollars and for the benefit of close to 100,000 border inhabitants. Held in the elegant confines of the Members Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the meeting featured the presence of both EPA Administrator Whitman, the Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S., as well as several U.S. and Mexican federal congressional leaders, including Senator Pete Domenici, Congressmen Sylvester Reyes and Ed Pastor from the U.S. and Diputados Irma Pinerio, president of the Population, Border and Migratory Issue Committee, Jesus Burgos Pinto, president of the Hydraulic Resources Committee, and Committee members Hector Gonzalez Reza and Oscar Ochoa Patron (I think I got that right). Representatives of other US and Mexican congressmen were also present.
The meeting began with introductions of the Board members and distinguished guests and a welcoming by Ed Pastor, congressmen from Yuma. Congressmen Reyes then outlined some of the vast needs of the border, highlighting a report from the El Paso Times about the arrival of the "rainy" season, which the Congressmen pointed out, does damage when you don't plan for it, yet offers opportunities to capture more water for the area. However, the lack of resources for planning for that rain has not allowed El Paso and the surroundings area to do the needed planning. The Congressmen recognized the important role that the US EPA and the BECC could play in these efforts, both for the immediate funding needs for infrastructure as well as the ability to do long-range planning for water. He said he looked forward to continuing to work with Administrator Whitman on these issues.
Following some comments by Ambassador Brener on the importance for the Fox administration in working on both economic and social development of the border, while also working to strengthen and reorient the BECC and NADBANk, Diputada Pinero spoke of the great importance environmental infrastructure had for her committee, along with the basic rights of the migrant communities in the border area. She called on everyone to listen to the demands of civilian groups and to respect migrant rights while building this infrastructure.
Diputado Burgos then outlined the important progress BECC had made in the border region, while asking it to begin to expand into water management issues. Burgos said that most important was the need for greater conservation within the Irrigation Districts and that his Committee would be working toward an Integrated Management of the Rio Conchos Watershed by rehabilitating the subbasins, including the vegetative and environmental needs of the rivers. He also said we need to look at both what has been working and what needs to change in the two institutions.
Diputado Patron then outlined some of the issues in the committees he belonged to, including the possible privatization of water supply in Mexico as well as in energy production. He said that it was a debate within Mexico as to what degree opening up these sectors would compromise Mexico's sovereignty although personally he recognized the need for development of these sectors.
The meeting then proceeded with presentation of the projects for potential certification. A video of the two wastewater projects in Dona Ana County, New Mexico was presented. One of the projects - serving the communities of Vado, Del Cerro, San Miguel, Berino and Chemberino - will create a regional wastewater collection and treatment project benefiting some 17,400 residents at a cost of $28.4 million. The project was interesting in the large number of meeting that were held among the communities to locate an acceptable wastewater treatment plant site. Similarly, the wastewater treatment plant for the communities of Salem and Ogaz further west in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, will serve some 2,000 individuals living in these two farming communities.
A representative of Senator Bingham and County Commissioner Kent Evans spoke in favor of the projects.
Elaine Koerner of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board spoke about the need for continued grant funding and building on the public participation and transparency of the BECC model.
Senator Domenici then arrived from a Committee Meeting and spoke about how, though often a hopefully constructive critic of the BECC and NADBANK over the years, he was very pleased that BECC was now able to expedite more projects every year, and hopefully would be able to certify some 20 projects over the next year. Domenici said there is no better time to go forward with this expansion then now to go forward with any changes that bring more infrastructure to the border. He said he understood that the Treasury Department was looking at how to take $50 million of the NADBANK funds and allow it to be loaned "less rigidly," and he was in favor of any changes that brought more relief to the border region. He also said that on the Hill, there was much more interest in the BECC/NADBANK then in past years, and that the health needs of border residents was very important to him, as demonstrated in the two projects just discussed. He said he was pushing a bill through to deliver ˝ billion dollars to put resources into the Ports of Entry because it was unacceptable to brag about the benefits of Free Trade and then not put in modern Ports of Entry so that the border itself would not bear the burden of that trade.
He said that the President had even mentioned the NADBANK in recent pronouncements and that the Treasury Department is looking at new ways that the monies can be used. Domenici said again that he was very pleased that BECC was expediting their process and their most positive change might be simply to get on with the projects that BECC and NADBANK can do, and tell other projects no at the beginning so we don't waste a lot of time and effort in bringing infrastructure to the border.
Following certification of the two New Mexico projects, three other projects were presented in videos. These included (description copied from BECC's press release):
Of particular note, Douglas City Manager Mike Ortega said that he wanted to correct any impression that because the project took so many years to develop it was somehow the result of a bureaucratic process. Instead, he lauded the BECC process as allowing Douglas and Agua Prieta to proceed with the project without even having a formal negotiation between the cities in place. (Douglas will be providing wastewater to Agua Prieta for use in agricultural fields.) He said BECC had a great impact on the project.
BECC Managing Director Fernando Macias then discussed the "Mandate Expansion" approved by the BECC Board in December of last year, which authorizes the BECC to consider projects in clean energy, industrial and hazardous waste, transportation and air quality. Macias said BECC had analyzed different projects and had come up with a list of eight projects that had the potential to be able to access loans from NADBANK through the BECC certification process. Macias was careful to note that none of these projects had really been analyzed nor even begun the process, but it was merely an attempt to consider what types of projects might be considered.
The projects discussed included:
In addition, Macias mentioned other projects that had been reviewed and were possibilities, including energy projects in Baja California and in the Burgos Basin, water irrigation conservation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and various tire recycling projects. Again, Macias emphasized the need to go forward with mandate expansion, but said all the projects would need significant work before the Board could act on them.
Finally, the meeting was opened to public comment. Cyrus Reed (that's I) of the Texas Center for Policy Studies spoke about recent reports released by TCPS on the Conchos River, Hazardous Waste and Forestry Issues in Chihuahua, as well as on the BECC and NADBANK. This last report makes a series of recommendations highlighted by Reed, including increased grant funds for both construction and technical assistance, and implementing the mandate expansion and value lending program (which allows for lending more money at lower interest) before making other fundamental changes. In addition, Reed said that while it is reasonable to discuss ways to make the process more efficient and to look at other sectors for NADBANK financing, the environmental groups liked the way the duties are distributed between the BECC and NADBANK because it provides public participation and transparency to the decision-making process. In addition, Reed said any fundamental change should be discussed publicly and one possibility would be to appoint a high-level committee of stakeholders to look at further expansion of NADBANK's role.
Andre Abel of the National Wildlife Federation highlighted a recent NGO statement signed by groups from both Mexico and the US which called for strengthening the process and made similar recommendations to those contained in the TCPS report. She also spoke of the need for BECC to begin a border wide regional strategic plan to prioritize and identify needs and resources for the border. She repeated the need for any fundamental changes to occur in a public way, especially in light of the discussions of Free Trade Promotion Authority.
A representative of Border Information Outreach Service - I believe Tanya Caroliana was the name - announced the results of a preliminary survey of border residents on the efforts of BECC and NADBANK. She said the main findings were the strong interest respondents have in their work, as well as they feel they have made progress. In addition, they feel the lack of progress in some areas is mainly due to a lack of financial resources for the BECC and there is an increased need for monies and capital to bring environmental infrastructure to the border.
Director Macias and other expressed interest in the survey. In response to a question by Lynda Taylor, EPA representative Alan Hecht (Administrator Whitman had to leave early due to other commitments) said no matter what happened in terms of reform of the two institutions, they would have to proceed with implementing the Value Lending programs, exploring mandate expansion while also assessing where we are in terms of meeting the goals. He said that the NGO statement and TCPS report were helpful in deciding how to proceed. Finally, in terms of changing the process or role of NADBANK, that both the U.S. and Mexican governments were exploring options and trying to come up with a position by September. He said that EPA was incorporating the advice it was hearing from NGOs and others in its perspective, including the need for public participation and transparency.
Isabel Stuyder from SEMARNAT said that in concentrating only on the process we sometimes lose sight of the ultimate goals and results we want to achieve. She said rather than simply responding to demands from individual groups, we should look at differences between developed country and country in process of developing when considering changes. At the same time, she recognized the qualitative change that had occurred in public participation and development of projects because of the efforts of BECC.
The meeting was adjourned.
*As always, this is my perspective of the meeting alone.