`Maquiladora' Pollution U.S. Problem

into open canals, called aguas negras, that run intermittently

along the 1,000-mile border between Texas and Mexico. Children

play along the sides of the canals, where they contract the

infectious diseases that are now rampant in the numerous South

Texas slums, called colonias.

The spread of infectious diseases is only one manifestation

of the border region's urbanization over the last 25 years.

The dumping of hazardous wastes threatens scarce supplies

of drinking water. Last year 175 drums of PCBs were found

abandoned only two blocks from the border in El Paso.

Across the border in Ciudad Juarez, storage drums for other

toxic chemicals are used as drinking-water containers.

The push for economic growth comes from assembly plants, called

maquiladoras, on the Mexican side of the border. These allow mostly

American companies to import raw materials, equipment and machinery

into Mexico duty-free. Most of the 1,600 plants are clustered around

twin border cities, primarily Tijuana-San Diego in California and

Ciudad Juarez-El Paso in Texas.

The population of these cities has grown along with the maquiladoras.

Ciudad Juarez grew by 135 per cent between 1975 and 1985, and now has

about 1.5 million residents. Tijuana grew from fewer than 200,000 people

in 1960 to its current population of more than 1 million.

The export value of maquiladora products shipped to the United States

jumped from 2.7 billion in 1982 to 5.6 billion in 1989.

The maquiladora industry has strained the resources of an already

poverty-stricken and dry region. Sewage-treatment plants on the Mexican

side of the border are rare - Cuidad Juarez does not have any and Tijuana

built its first one only recently.

More than 12 million gallons of untreated sewage and chemicals still

run into the Tijuana River each day.

Some end up on Imperial Beach on the California coast, which has been

closed for 10 years.

Up to 300,000 people live in the Texas squatter settlements, which also

exist on a smaller scale in California, Arizona and New Mexico. These

settlements frequently depend on shallow wells to tap underground water

supplies that are increasingly vulnerable to pollution from industrial

wastes and raw sewage.

In one El Paso colonia, 35 per cent of all children of eight or older

have had hepatitis A, and by the age of 35 up to 90 per cent of the colonia

residents have contracted it.

Although the border water supply is generally not tested for solvents and

heavy metals, the Environmental Protection Agency finds that few maquiladoras

return their hazardous waste to American parent companies, as required by

Mexican law. Because the enforcement of Mexico's environmental laws is lax

and the cost of disposing of waste in the United States is high - from $200

to $2,000 a barrel - the incentive to dump the waste in Mexico is large.

The border also faces an impending water shortage. The water of the Rio

Grande, which divides Texas from Mexico, has long been overused, and along

much of the border people rely on ground water. As early as 1981 a University

of Mexico study on border resources said the aquifer under El Paso-Ciudad

Juarez was being depleted faster than it was recharged.

A rural-development bill in Congress would provide about $60 million to

the colonias, but the Bush administration is opposed to it.

The state of Texas has attempted to fill the federal vacuum with $100

million in bonds for sewage-treatment plants for the border region. Tiny,

compared with what's needed.