Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
  • Full Schedule
Watch Live

Politics

Cross-Border Sewage Line At Risk

By Michel Marizco / Senior Field Correspondent
Published May 8, 2013 at 3:04 PM PDT
This story was published more than 11 years ago.
Cross-Border Sewage Line At Risk
Arizona’s senators are warning that a raw sewage pipeline running across the border from Mexico is deteriorating and must be repaired. The question is, who is going to pay for it.

Letter to State Department
Letter to State Department
Download attachment
To view PDF files, download Acrobat Reader.

Arizona’s senators are warning that a raw sewage pipeline running across the border from Mexico is deteriorating and must be repaired. The question is, who is going to pay for it?

Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake sent a letter to the State Department on Tuesday saying the pipeline must be repaired soon. Nogales, Ariz., processes about 10 million gallons of sewage from Nogales, Mexico every day. The International Water and Boundary Commission, IWBC, has said the city of Nogales, Ariz. should pay half the $31 million needed to repair it.

Advertisement
Become a KPBS sponsor

Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino disagrees. “This line comes up from Mexico, so it’s up to IWBC to take care of this issue.”

The commission has not responded to the senators' warning. Garino hopes a compromise can be reached before the monsoon rain season begin this summer and the amount of sewage heading north nearly doubles to 17 million gallons a day.

Politics
Michel Marizco
Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco (Tucson) has reported along the Southwest border for the past decade, most of that in Arizona and Sonora. Before joining the Fronteras Desk, he produced stories in the field for CNN Madrid, the BBC, 60 Minutes Australia, and the CBC. His work now focuses on transnational trafficking syndicates, immigration, federal law enforcement and those weird, wild stories that make the U.S.-Mexico border such an inherently fascinating region. He is a contributing author on Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime and an occasional writer at High Country News. In his spare time, he works with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, assisting in the ongoing investigations of journalist killings in Mexico.
See stories by Michel Marizco
More News