Toxic Waste Problems Worsen on U.S. - Mexican Border

by Danielle Knight

Lack of information on hazardous waste in the area and incentives to illegally dump waste in Mexico remain a problem, say environmentalists on both side of the border.

"There are more questions than answers," says Cyrus Reed, a researcher with the Texas Center for Policy Studies. "Problems with practices and oversight of hazardous waste management continue all along the border."

Environmentalists also warn that these current problems may worsen early in the next century when, under NAFTA, U.S.-owned maquiladoras will not have to ship their waste back to the United States.

They predicted dramatic jumps in the production of toxic chemicals, such as lead, mercury, chlorine, cadmium and arsenic, along the border, as well as increased incidences of illegal dumping or unsafe disposal of toxic waste. Meanwhile, a report produced by the Clinton administration stated, "With the NAFTA, resources will be made available to manage hazardous waste properly and encourage enforcement of hazardous waste laws."

Since then, both governments have made efforts to improve data collection, monitoring capability, clean-up of clandestine waste sites, and the enforcement of hazardous waste regulations. Mexican and U.S. environmental officials created a computerized waste tracking system for the border known as HAZTRACKS.

The bi-national system aims to address troubling data gaps and permit the effective management of hazardous wastes in the region. HAZTRACKS now provides data available on the Internet on such waste flows and has even been used to catch illegal toxic waste producers and shippers.

Environmentalists, however, maintain that HAZTRACKS is hardly a success.

"The U.S. and Mexico can't agree on whether the numbers are correct, information on the flow of hazardous waste from the U.S. to Mexico is limited, and the input of hazardous waste information from Mexico to HAZTRACKS has often been sporadic," says Reed.

This, combined with the huge increases in NAFTA-spurred trade and cross-border traffic, has made tracking and controlling the movement of toxic substances more difficult, he says.

And, while NAFTA was supposed to result in a decline in the number of toxic-emitting maquiladora plants along the frontier by diverting investment away from the border, industry in the region has boomed, especially after the 1994-95 peso devaluation. Today, there are about 3,600 maquilas in Mexico -- 2,000 of which are located in the 100 kilometer zone along the U.S. border.

According to the Washington-based Public Citizen, a public interest advocacy group, the number of maquiladora workers rose 50 percent during the first three years of NAFTA. Most of these workers were employed in one of the six Mexican states that border the United States.

Because of this industrial build-up along the border dangers from hazardous waste in the region have increased, say environmentalists. Joe Schultes, an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says hazardous waste coming across the border increased 30 percent in 1995 and a total of 279 million tons of was generated that same year -- the last U.S. figures available.

Mexican environmental officials at the Instituto Nacional de Ecologia, however, estimate that only about 10.5 million tons of hazardous waste were generated by maquiladoras in 1997 -- up from eight million tons in 1996. Meanwhile, domestic and foreign owned industry in Mexico reported generating only 1.4 million tons of waste.

This lack of accurate information is part of the problem, says environmentalists.

"The dearth of information regarding the generation and disposal of hazardous wastes in Mexico is particularly problematic in the border region, where maquiladora industry compliance with hazardous waste reporting laws remains poor," says Reed.

Environmentalists on both sides of the border also warn that when the import duties between the United States and Mexico are phased out under NAFTA, current waste disposal practices in Mexico will worsen.

Current law under the binational 1983 La Paz agreement mandates that maquiladoras return all hazardous wastes to their country of origin. Early next century, however, NAFTA will nullify this requirement.

As Mexico prepares for changes in the year 2000, more legal treatment and storage facilities are being proposed throughout the border region.

In Coahuila, Mexico, a coalition of environmental and human rights groups, known as the Common Front for Environmental Defense, are demanding environmental impact assessments and public disclosure of information on the proposed dumps.

"I don't want to see my home turned into a dumping ground for other states and countries," says German Rios Barcelo, a medical doctor involved in Alianza Civica, another group that is fighting a toxic waste dump in Hermosillo, Mexico.