The Great River becomes a great sewer

  • By Diane Sylvain

  • Texas high school students analyze the Rio Grande River

    Pamela Porter
 

FORT HANCOCK, Texas - Red-headed Jimmy Frank Rogers, a junior and an agile receiver on Fort Hancock High's six-man football team (school enrollment: 102), straddled some spindly salt cedar on the steep banks of the Rio Grande and surveyed what was once the Great River.

"I'd guess maybe 20 yards across," offered Rogers, tugging at his Texas Aggies ball cap. The Rio Grande, here some 50 miles downstream of the El Paso/Juarez metropolis, was barely a foot deep where it wasn't dry altogether.

"Down here," observed Rogers' science teacher, Ted Woodruff, "the Rio Grande is a bit of a misnomer." And, he added, without disagreement from his lively class, "a bit of a cesspool at times."

Last month Woodruff and seven students joined some 60 other high school science classes in Texas, Mexico and New Mexico - over 2,000 students - in testing the quality of the Rio Grande along a 1,500-mile course from the high sierra of northern New Mexico, near Taos, to its demise at the Gulf of Mexico.

It was the fourth year for the binational effort called Project del Rio. The Santa Fe-based program monitors the river three times each spring in one of the largest mass testings of a river in the world. What the students found was pretty dismal.

The Rio Grande, listed last year as the country's most imperiled river by the conservation group American Rivers, is fouled by nitrates, phosphates and "off the scale" pH levels in many areas. Human and animal wastes along much of the Mexican border make any skin contact with the river dangerous.

"To be honest," said Project del Rio's normally upbeat director, Lisa LaRocque, "I don't see anything comforting about the results. The good news is that the students produced their best data ever."

The river's worst health problem continues to be high levels of fecal coliform. While not pathogenic, fecal coliform often indicate the presence of organisms that carry hepatitis, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. Raw sewage in the river has been a problem for many years because the largest cities on the Mexican side have antiquated sewage treatment plants, or none. In Nuevo Laredo, where officials say the city's first sewage treatment plant is at least a year from completion, about 70 percent of its half-million people flush their wastes directly into the Rio Grande.

"Some parts of the river are so dirty," says Project del Rio's U.S. coordinator, Craig Heacock, "that it's not a good idea to have the students test it. In those cases they sometimes pay the coyotes (men who ferry people across the border illegally) to get a water sample for them."

Dr. Laurance Nickey, director of the El Paso City-County Health and Environmental District, says Juarez officials have told him 55 million gallons of raw sewage and industrial pollutants leave the city of 2 million each day.

"They discharge it into irrigation canals that parallel the Rio Grande for 18 miles and serve some 60,000 acres of farmland," Nickey says. "When it's not used for irrigation, the canals are rediverted into the Rio Grande - in fact, a few miles upstream of Fort Hancock."

The reason those Fort Hancock students see such a meager river much of the year is that the vast majority of the Rio Grande is given to agriculture through irrigation canals. But on the Mexican side below Juarez, those irrigation canals - called the aguas negras, or black waters - are also the avenues of disease.

Dr. Nickey, who like many older El Pasoans swam and fished in the river as a child, says that in 1992 the rates of hepatitis A and dysentery doubled and tripled, respectively, in El Paso County. Several cholera cases were reported on the Mexican side two years ago, and on the day the students tested last month, the El Paso newspapers were reporting a case of polio in Juarez - the first in three years.

More than just a well-intentioned science program, Project del Rio has won support from industry, government and community groups for its reliability. The non-profit project is funded largely by the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA's Mexican counterpart, known as SEDESOL, U.S. and Mexican corporations along the border and the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation.

Despite its non-partisan approach, Project del Rio's test results inevitably take on a political context. Some opponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement say the river's condition indicates how unprepared Mexico is for massive industrialization. Ironically, some of Project del Rio's sponsors, among which are chemical firms, auto makers, waste haulers, pharmaceutical companies and a steel mill, represent industries that have been among the border's worst polluters.

LaRoque, a former Peace Corps worker with a master's degree in environmental education from the University of Michigan, concedes that because the students are not testing for substances like solvents, pesticides and heavy metals, the companies have little fear of being singled out as polluters.

"I applaud the Project del Rio students," Nickey says, "but I'm very concerned about our river. If the U.S. government can give hundreds of millions of dollars to Afghanistan and all the other "stans," why in heaven's name can't they give Mexico some sewage treatment plants?

"I just hope," pleads Nickey, "that the students' findings will raise the consciousness of those people who live along another river - the Potomac."

Lisa LaRocque can be reached at Project del Rio, 1345 Camino de los Lopez, Suite B., Santa Fe, NM 87505 (505/471-7788).

The writer lives and writes in Austin, Texas.

High Country News Classifieds
  • WYOMING CLIMATE ORGANIZER
    Job Title: Wyoming Climate Coordinator Reports to: Energy and Climate Policy Director Type of Work: Full-time, hourly, but willing to consider part-time Classification: Non-exempt Start...
  • DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
    Colorado West Land Trust seeks a Director of Development to lead the organization's fundraising efforts. Western Colorado is home to Colorado's fruit and wine industry,...
  • DIRECTOR - COLORADO WILD PUBLIC LANDS
    NON-PROFIT DIRECTOR If you are looking for meaningful work, this is the opportunity to join a small and exciting nonprofit organization led by an engaged...
  • EDITORIAL INTERN - INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS DESK
    High Country News is seeking an intern to serve on its award-winning Indigenous Affairs Desk. The Indigenous Affairs Intern will dive deep into important stories...
  • COMING TO TUCSON?
    Popular vacation house, everything furnished. Two bedroom, one bath, large enclosed yards. Dog-friendly. Contact Lee at [email protected] or 520-791-9246.
  • ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSTRUCTION GEOPHYSICS
    We characterize contaminated sites, identify buried drums, tanks, debris and also locate groundwater.
  • NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION MANAGER
    Central Colorado Conservancy is an accredited land trust and community-based conservation organization based in Salida, CO. Our mission is to protect the land, waters and...
  • ESCAPE THE CROWDS AND EMBRACE NATURE: AFFORDABLE RETREAT, JUST AN HOUR FROM GLACIER NATIONAL PARK AND BOB MARSHALL WILDERNESS!
    Welcome to your new tranquil oasis in Montana. This beautiful 2-bedroom home FSBO is just an hour's drive to the east entrance of Glacier National...
  • DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
    Areas of Responsibility: The Development Director collaborates with the Executive Director, other HEAL Utah staff, board, and supporters to continue building one of Utah's most...
  • DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST
    Position Summary Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is hiring an organized and creative Digital Engagement Specialist to join our Marketing and Communications Team. The Digital Engagement...
  • 92 ACRE EASTERN WASHINGTON GEM
    Welcome to Lost Creek Sanctuary... a true hidden gem in the heart of the Palouse. 1900 square feet, the main house is warm and charming,...
  • WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR SALE
    Vibrant, financially successful 1,100 print run, community-focused subscription newspaper in beautiful Pacific Northwest Washington seeks owner/s. It is time to retire. Now, your Norman Rockwell-like...
  • STAFF ATTORNEY - WILDLANDS AND WILDLIFE PROGRAM
    Job Opening Announcement: Wildlands and Wildlife Program Staff Attorney Reports to: Wildlands and Wildlife Program Director Location: Pacific Northwest, ideally in Eugene, Oregon, Portland, Oregon,...
  • HEAD OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
    The Head of Project Management will oversee our project execution to ensure that we are providing our partners around the world with the field data...
  • LEGAL DIRECTOR
    Trustees for Alaska is the only nonprofit environmental law firm founded and based in Alaska. We are seeking a Legal Director, full-time based in Anchorage....
  • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    The Fund for People in Parks seeks leader to identify, develop, fund, and facilitate high-impact projects in western National Parks. Remote position with some travel....
  • GRASSROOTS REGIONAL COORDINATOR
    Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a women-led national grassroots organization that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands. The...
  • GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY MANAGER
    Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a women-led national grassroots organization that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands. Position...
  • GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP DIRECTOR
    The Grassroots Leadership (Director) oversees the training, guidance, and support of volunteer Broadband Leaders. (Broadbands are women-led grassroots chapters, with 40+ across the country.) They...
  • FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT NEEDED
    We would like to invite you to participate in a 60-minute focus group to help us enhance the New Mexico Courts website (https://www.inside.nmcourts.gov/). Our aim...