The environmental impacts of the Mexico–United States border are numerous, including the disposal of hazardous waste, increase of air pollution, threats to essential water resources, and ecosystem fragmentation.
History The Mexico–United States border consists of a continental boundary of 1,954 mi. This border region is composed of diverse terrains in which various species, peoples, and indigenous tribes have made their homes. Through the decades, both countries have attributed to the increase in population growth, manufacturing corporations, and fragmentation of land due to border policy changes which contribute to environmental disparities between these neighboring borders.
Policy framework La Paz Agreement On August 14, 1983, at La Paz, Baja California Sur, the United States and Mexico entered into the United States–Mexico Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area, known as the La Paz Agreement.
The agreement aims to protect and conserve the environment along the border. The agreement sets forth the responsibilities of both parties to prevent and control air, water, and land pollution in the border area. This agreement is made in accordance to each country's laws. The agreement entails that both parties must take responsibility for their border area and have the right to raise concerns if one state's environmental hazards linger into the other. The agreement highlights that both countries have the responsibility of coordinating with one another in the creation of national programs, scientific and educational exchanges, environmental monitoring, environmental impact assessment, and periodic exchanges of information and data on pollution sources in their respective territory. The information collected is then exchanged between each country every year at an annual meeting. The host nation alternates between the two countries. The collection of data is at the expense of each country. In consensus with one another the countries can make any annex changes to the agreement. Either party may terminate the agreement at any time, with the withdrawal made effect after a sixty-day period.
Thirty years after it was signed, the La Paz Agreement "remains the keystone agreement for bilateral cooperation on environmental protection in the border zone."
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC)
The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) is an extension of the International Boundary Commission (IBC) that was established in 1889. In 1944 the IBC extended its responsibilities by including water regulations and treaties which gave it its new name and new responsibilities (see Treaty relating to the utilization of waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande). This commission has two sections: one belonging to the United States located in El Paso, Texas, and the other to Mexico with its location in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
The IBWC's main focus is on the sanitation, distribution, and flood control over natural river waters and the distribution of boundaries between the U.S. and Mexican borders. The treaties and agreements have an in-depth focus on the water distribution of the Rio Grande, Colorado River, Tijuana River, Santa Cruz River, and other water components that flow into these rivers. These water masses must be maintained by both parties at each countries own expense. The IBWC also protects lands along the river from floods by levee and flood-way projects. Each country expanded their IBWC departments to have organizations within their department for deterring floods, pollution, and waste from these masses of water. Such departments include treatment plants, dams, levee systems, emergency departments, data collecting departments, and field offices.
Robert J. McCarthy, writing in the Water Law Review, states that the IBWC, has become an anachronism in which there is lack of oversight, regulation, and distribution of the natural resources between both countries. He makes his claims based on empirical research and data he collects from employees, water data collected, and legal structure within the IBWC sections both in the U.S. and Mexico. He claims that this system is uni-polar and the policies are in favor of the U.S. leading to unequal disparities for Mexico.
EPA policy According to the Environmental Protection Agency's agenda, their main priority is to reduce the concentrations of particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5 along the border. In their most recent program, designed to be executed by 2020, their main focus has shifted to air pollution. This shift was caused to empirical data and information exchanged by both countries in their 2012 annual review.
The Border 2012 Program was the third bi-national agreement adopted under the La Paz Agreement of 1983. Border 2012 was initiated in April 2003 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico's Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT). The program completed over 400 projects using a community-based approach that prioritized the most serious environmental and public health concerns reported by residents and workers along the shared border region.
Most of the projects funded by Border 2012 were designed to remedy issues specific to a community. Other projects were completed or applied to issues that affected multiple communities. A wide breadth of creativity in addressing environmental and health concerns went into the achievements of the individual communities. One such example consists of the students and faculty of Autonomous University in Ciudad Juárez who crafted spray-paint cans that are better for the environment than the outdated spray cans previously used in the auto industry. Borderwide projects made huge achievements in areas such as scrap tire removal, providing safe drinking water systems and connecting homes to wastewater facilities, government collection of unused pesticides and agro-chemicals, improved emergency response and readiness in case of an environmental disaster, created coordinated binational responses in the event of an emergency along the border, community cleanups and solid waste removal from various waterways on both sides of the border, properly removing or recycling e-waste in U.S. and Mexico, and took inventories of greenhouse gas emissions (GHE).
Customs & Border Protection Environmental Policy U.S. Customs and Border Protection is charged with border management and control in the United States. One of CBP's many functions is to integrate environmental stewardship in accordance to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. This act ensures that CBP evaluates all environmental hazards that can affect the ecosystem, endangered species, or indigenous tribes along the border. Environmental hazards must be tested when, "planning projects; leasing, purchasing, constructing, operating, maintaining, or decommissioning equipment, facilities, or tactical infrastructure; and revising and implementing operational programs and activities" along the border. Along with tests, CBP must also reach out to stake holders, non-government organizations, state, and indigenous tribes to maximize and sustain potential outcomes.
Secure Fence Act The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed providing for the construction of 700 miles (1,100 km) of high-security fencing. This act was processed under the Bush Administration in attempts to complete the construction of the United States–Mexico barrier.
The fencing built under the 2006 act caused habitat fragmentation that affected wildlife, including endangered animals. A 2011 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Diversity and Distributions determined that the habitat fragmentation determined that "small range size is associated with a higher risk of extinction, and for some species, the barriers reduce range by as much as 75%."Jesse R. Lasky, Walter Jetz & Timothy H. Keitt, Conservation biogeography of the US–Mexico border: a transcontinental risk assessment of barriers to animal dispersal (first published online March 3, 2011; in July 2011), Volume 17, Issue 4, pp. 673–687, doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00765.x. Summarized at Melissa Gaskill, United States border fence threatens wildlife: Barrier between the United States and Mexico divides habitats and puts species at risk, Nature (August 2, 2011), doi:10.1038/news.2011.452. The study identified the most "at risk" species as the Arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus), California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), black-spotted newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis), Pacific pond turtle (Clemmys marmorata), and jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi). The study also identified coastal California, coastal Texas, and the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago of southeastern Arizona and southwest New Mexico as the three border regions where the barrier posed the greatest risk to wildlife. In Texas, for example, "the border barrier affects 60% to 70% of the habitat in the South Texas Wildlife Refuge Complex, which includes the Laguna Atascosa, Lower Rio Grande Valley, and Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuges."
Executive Order 13767
On January 25, 2017, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13767, directing construction of a border wall. Such a wall was not under construction, and Congress had not appropriated the funds to build such a wall.Matt Apuzzo, Trump Orders a Wall Built, but Congress Holds the Checkbook, New York Times (January 25, 2017). The construction of a border wall as envisioned in Trump's order would cause significant environmental damage, including habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation that would harm wildlife, including endangered species.Erika Bolstad, Trump's Wall Could Cause Serious Environmental Damage, E&E News (republished in Scientific American) (January 26, 2017).Jamie Condliffe, Trump's Border Wall Will Be Awful for the Environment, MIT Technology Review (January 27, 2017).Darryl Fears, Endangered animals are already cut off by a border wall. Trump wants it to be much bigger, Washington Post (January 27, 2017). Wall construction would also cause increased greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change, due to the concrete manufacturing that would be required.
A 2017 study conducted by UNAM scientists found that more than 800 species, of which 140 are endangered, would be adversely affected if Trump's 2,000-mile-long border wall is built. The research concluded that the erection of "an impassable physical barrier placed into ecosystems" would "so disrupt patterns of migration as to cause a 'natural catastrophe.'" The bald eagle, grey wolf, armadillo and jaguar would be adversely affected.Alasdair Baverstock, Experts warn 800 species, many endangered, affected by border wall, Associated Press (April 10, 2017). The wall would adversely affect even some bird species, such as the ferruginous pygmy owl, which "rarely flies higher than 4.5 feet off the ground."Clara Chaisson, El Jefe the Jaguar Is Also Not a "Bad Dude", Natural Resources Defense Council (February 15, 2017).