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Detailed Meeting Summary/Minutes Imperial Beach 2003
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
GOOD NEIGHBOR ENVIRONMENTAL BOARD
Board Meeting
Dempsey Holder Safety Center
Imperial Beach, California
October 22-23, 2003
Detailed Meeting Summary/Minutes
Final, Approved
Meeting Summary/ Minutes of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Good Neighbor Environmental Board
Board Meeting
Dempsey Holder Safety Center
Imperial Beach, California
October 22-23, 2003
Meeting Participants
Chair
Placido Dos Santos, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Board Members Present
Larry Allen, Board of Directors, Malpai Borderlands Group
Diana Borja, Office of Border Affairs, Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality
Gedi Cibas, Border Coordinator, New Mexico Environment Department
William Fry, President of Quality Assurance in Environmental Affairs,
HEB grocers
Paul Ganster, Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, San
Diego State University
Valecia Gavin, President, Border Environmental Health Coalition, Doña
Ana County, NM
John Klein, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior
Dale Phillips, Vice Chair, Cocopah Tribe
Ken Ramirez, Bracewell & Patterson at Law, Austin, Texas
Ed Ranger, President LexRadar, Inc., Tempe, Arizona
Diane Rose, Mayor of Imperial Beach, California
Doug Smith, Corporate Environmental Affairs, Sony Electronics
James Stefanov, Alternate for Carlos Ramirez IBWC Commissioner
Nancy Sutley, California State Water Resources Control Board, Sacramento
Laura Yoshii, EPA Deputy Regional Administrator, San Francisco
EPA Staff
Elaine Koerner, EPA, Designated Federal Officer
Oscar Carrillo, EPA, Associate Designated Federal Officer
Geraldine Brown, EPA
Lois Williams, EPA
Megan Moreau, EPA
Speakers and Guests
Francisco Amenez, Colegio de la Frontera (COLEF)
Carlos Benja, Foreign Affairs Officer, IBWC U.S. Section
Ray Bruno, Sony Electronics
Benjamin Casillas, graduate student
Kate Champagne, graduate student
Rene Cordoba, Representative of North West Consejo
Norma Mota, President, North East Consejo
Andres Ochoa, Representative of North East Consejo
Saul Guzman Garcia, SEMARNAT
Oscar Romo, Member of National Consejo
Crystal Crawford, Borders Committee, San Diego Association of Governments
Arv Cusmaworia, San Diego resident
Denise Moreno Ducheny, California state senator
David Fege, EPA- San Diego Border Office
Alex Hidalgo, San Diego Association of Governments
Jennifer Kraus, former GNEB member
Alven Lam, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, for Shannon
Sorzano
Roberto Lujan, Border Waste Wise Project
Ricardo Martinez, Assistant Secretary for Border Affairs, California
EPA
Mita Patricia Melgallo, COLEF
Carlos Cortez, COLEF
Clemente Santos, COLEF
Hiram Sarabia, San Diego Baykeeper; Hahan Coalition
Ella Saxod, Tijuana River Watershed Binational Vision Project
Dave Schlesinger, Baja-Agua Project
Rick Van Schoik, University Consortium, Southwest Center Environmental
Research & Policy
Suzanne Simon, research fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UC-San
Diego
Enrique Villegas, General Director, Secretariat of Ecology, State of
Baja California
Leonel Vizcarra Ojeda, State Water Commission, Baja California
Doretta Winkelman, San Diego Natural History Museum
Tessa Wright, Office of Mayor Diane Rose, Imperial Beach, CA
Diane Zamora, Office of Assembly Member Juan Varguez
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Good Neighbor Environmental Board
Board Meeting
Dempsey Holder Safety Center
Imperial Beach, California
Detailed Meeting Summary, October 22-23, 2003
Background
The Good Neighbor Environmental Board (the Board) is an independent
advisory committee that advises the U.S. President and Congress on environmental
infrastructure issues along the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Day 1 - October 22, 2003
Greetings
Chairman Placido Dos Santos welcomed Board members, representatives
of the Consejos (Mexico's counterparts to the Good Neighbor Environmental
Board), speakers and members of the public, all of whom introduced themselves.
The chair extended a special thanks to the Board members and their staffs
who had organized this meeting.
Imperial Beach Mayor Diane Rose (also a Board member) welcomed the group to the continental United States' most southwesterly city, which sits between two wildlife refuges, has a history of military activity and environmental activism, and has as its logo a Woody with a surf board on top.
Guest Presentations on U.S.-Mexico Border Cooperation
Tijuana River Watershed (TRW) Binational Vision Project
Elsa Saxod, Office of Binational Affairs, City of San Diego
Ms. Saxod, the co-chair of the TRW vision project, offered background information on the TRW, a large transborder watershed in an area of 3 million people (a population projected to double by 2020) with extensive biodiversity. She pointed out that the Board has in its reports recommended a watershed approach. Her group's mission is for stakeholders "to participate in the development of a binational vision for the watershed's ideal state for the near and distant future, and to help devise strategies and options for achieving that vision." They have held public meetings on both sides of the border, which have helped them to prioritize and to refine and focus broad statements, and which have ensured more of a buy-in by involving so many people. They maintain a website and hope to have a draft document for review in 2004. Ms. Saxod hopes the group's work can be a model.
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In response to questions from the Board, Ms. Saxod explained that the report could be taken back to organizations and government entities by the diverse membership of the advisory board, a sort of built-in core group of lobbyists. She said there is already a wealth of good relationships and a history of cooperation in the area, as well as a good deal of GIS coverage (though groundwater mapping could be expanded). The only real barrier she has encountered so far is getting the private-sector business community to the table. Also, most challenges the group faces come down to the issue of economics on both sides of the border.
Mr. Dos Santos congratulated Ms. Saxod's group on the scope of the effort and suggested they contact parties involved in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, a similar effort.
Mr. Ganster, a Good Neighbor Board member who also works with the group, said they are still trying to figure out a synergy with efforts like Border 2012. Ms. Yoshii added that there may be funding available through Border 2012, which was looking at the importance of tapping in to more local and regional efforts.
Tijuana River Watershed Communications Project
Doretta Winkelman, Director of Binational Education, San Diego Natural
History Museum
The mission of the Natural History Museum is to "interpret the world through research, education and exhibits," and this CD-ROM, subtitled "One River, Three Nations," is one of the educational projects. Ms. Winkelman showed the Board the brief introduction on the bilingual CD, which includes chapters on the physical, environmental, cultural and political perspectives of the TRW, with 20 minutes of video, 400 pages of documents and 400 images. The project began in June 2000 with a needs assessment by the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association (SWIA), followed by community workshops in both Mexico and the U.S. Its objectives include informing, raising questions, promoting dialogue, increasing understanding, providing stakeholders access to research reports and products, and explaining the government framework that regulates water in the region.
Besides the Museum and SWIA, participants included EPA, Fish and Wildlife, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fundacion la Puerta. The federal agencies had access to a lot of grants and built-in funding resources. Cooperation, Ms. Winkelman reported, was "rather simple and easy" because the agencies involved have been working together in the region for a long time and "consider each other extended family." One challenge was that funds for these types of projects are not readily available in Mexico. They did not have full participation of tribes and Mexican organizations, and she said the group did not do a very good job trying to bring in those organizations or agencies. She acknowledged that "a group of federal agencies working together is not necessarily the best way to do a project that is for the community or at the grassroots level, but we did the very best we could with what we had available."
Local governments and all the stakeholders who participated in community workshops have received copies, and they are available to the public at the museum and at the Chula Vista Nature Center and Tijuana Estuary gift shops. There is an accompanying curriculum for educational distribution with the CD.
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Questions and Comments
Mr. Dos Santos: Do you have any sort of walk-up display for the CD-ROM
that anybody can walk up to in the Natural History Museum or any other
public center so that they can stroll through it?
Ms. Winkelman: We typically do that at conferences but not at the
store. But that is an idea that could be implemented.
Mr. Cibas: Do you have any idea what is the percent of stakeholders in
the watershed who have seen it?
Ms. Winkelman: Hundred and hundreds have been distributed through
the agencies.
Mr. Fege: We explored having the Mexican phone company Telnor distribute
it to new customers and schools; that has not panned out as of yet.
Binational Community-Based Projects in the San Diego-Tijuana Region
Hiram Sarabia, Binational Water Quality Monitoring Program, San Diego
Baykeeper; Hahan Coalition
The population growth in this region is impressive, and the infrastructure on both sides, particularly in Mexico, is aging and insufficient. There is a growing problem of non-point-source pollution and greater strain on water resources, with a related loss of biodiversity and increase in public-health issues arising from the degradation of water resources. Plus, the border presents regulatory, economic and cultural differences. It is truly a monster of a thousand heads, and it is hard to figure out which one to attack first.
The coalition called Hahan ("good water" in the region's native Pai-Pai language) is composed of groups that span a wide spectrum of interests, with each autonomous organization having an equal voice. These groups came together to promote a culture of water quality and pollution prevention, and to inform and educate the public. The coalition's needs evaluation identified one of the largest needs to be public environmental information resources. It undertook a pilot project with initial funding from member organizations (mostly in-kind and time donations) to monitor indicator bacteria levels at some high-public-use beaches. "We knew that the real problems, the bigger problems, the origin of the problems were inside the watersheds," Mr. Sarabia said, but people relate easily to beach pollution: if you go in the water today, you have a risk of getting sick. "Our intent is not just to focus on public health, but to use public health to get people to think about other things that are important—how if you protect the environment to protect your health, you can also protect many other things, including biodiversity and ecosystems." Funding from the International Community Foundation allowed Hahan to build a year-long study based on the pilot. Its reports include a lot of public-education information, and its English and Spanish brochures are designed to be understood at a fifth-grade level.
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One of the challenges Hahan has faced has been the lack of clear standards in Mexico. The country is beginning to conduct a monitoring program at some tourist beaches, using World Health Organization standards. Lessons learned include the importance of doing a needs assessment, of having clear objectives, of taking a regional approach, and of involving many types of groups.
Questions and Comments
Ms. Sutley: Was any of the monitoring during a storm event?
Mr. Sarabia: We monitor based on a biweekly frequency. We do not
go by storm event; of course, we do find gross contamination after a storm
event.
Mr. Cibas: Do you have systems of interactivity, something with the capacity
for a viewer to be able to formulate questions based on his location, for
example, in terms of problems and going to different databases and rearranging
them?
Mr. Sarabia: At this point, the viewer needs to have a certain level
of knowledge of the subject. We are working to provide a data product that
can do that for everybody. We are currently building our online information
system.
Greetings from California State Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny
Senator Ducheny, who represents the length of California's border
with Baja California, updated the Board on the Border Legislators Forum,
which takes the model of the Border Governors and the 10 States Environmental
Ministers. They meet about three times a year, with the next meeting scheduled
for November 2003. "We are talking about a lot of the same issues
you are," she said, mentioning water, transportation and air quality,
and emphasizing the need for Mexico and the U.S. to work jointly in these
areas.
Binational Cooperation on Industrial Wastewater Monitoring and Pretreatment
Ricardo Martinez, Assistant Secretary for Border Affairs, California
EPA
Enrique Villegas, General Director, Secretariat of Ecology, State
of Baja California
Leonel Vizcarra Ojeda, State Water Commission, Baja California
Mr. Martinez stated that during President Vicente Fox's March 2001 visit, California was able to sign three agreements, the first kind of agreements a U.S. state signed with the Republic of Mexico. They focused on an air emissions pilot program, which was implemented in Tijuana; the protection of the Sea of Cortez ecosystem; and the Industrial Wastewater Monitoring and Pretreatment Program, which we initiated in Tijuana and, with its success, extended to Tecate and Mexicali. It consisted of in-class training and shadowing of inspectors in the San Diego area, and training in sample collections techniques, lab quality assurance, and sample analysis. Sites are determined through a technical committee, and analyses are passed on to a policy committee to decide what needs to be done after that. This can trigger inspections to find out who is discharging effluents into the sewage that they are not supposed to be discharging, which brings things full-circle: a sample collection, analysis, and then an enforcement action to follow up on and the corrective action. The program has dispelled myths about what is coming into the U.S. from Baja California, increased cooperation and really made things happen in a positive sense. There are funds to continue the program in Tijuana, but it will end after this year in the other cities.
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Mr. Villegas offered specifics about some of the monitored sites, and spoke of additional benefits to the state of Baja California, especially in terms of equipment and training, and the ability to build up their own certified labs to continue the program with their own resources and not have to go to a lab in San Diego, which among other problems creates a time lag. "We are in charge of regulating the discharges of all the industry in Baja California," he said, "but without this type of program it was impossible to really find out who is discharging something illegally or irregularly." Several new permits have been generated by the program, and it has identified new industries that were reporting no wastewater but need to be regulated. "It has been a program that has really helped us to identify the problems, localize them, and work on them."
Mr. Ojeda elaborated on the regional context, talking about the education gap with 70 percent of Baja California water commission's operating personnel not having been past grammar school. In the smaller, denser housing lots in Tijuana, roughly 70 percent of the city is outfitted with sewage lines, but the coverage by treatment plants is very low. In addition, the Tijuana and Rosarito region is growing by 70,000 people a year. Help from the California EPA and loans from the North American Development Bank (NADBank) and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation have made possible a goal of having 100 percent of the water treated by 2007.
Ms. Sutley said that one way the Board can help with the local effort is to remind people in Washington, DC—who may not think of a highly urbanized, rapidly growing population when they think of the border—that the region has many different facets.
Questions and Comments
Mr. Cordoba: Does the program have a component for public information
or communication regarding the monitoring results?
Mr. Villegas: Yes. The reports are public documents when they are
completed, when the process of a whole year of monitoring ends. Right now,
since we have support from the state of California, they will be responsible
for issuing them.
Mr. Martinez: The reports are also available online at the website
of the City of San Diego, CAL EPA, and others.
Government-to-Government Cooperation
Crystal Crawford, Borders Committee Chair
The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is a planning organization for San Diego County and its 18 cities. It has representatives from neighboring counties and the Consul General from Baja California, whose office also represents Mexico on the advisory Borders Committee and the Committee on Binational Regional Opportunities (COBRO). In the last two years, SANDAG has established relationships with tribal governments in the county. The Borders Committee advises SANDAG's board on inter-regional and binational planning. COBRO, its predecessor, established summer conferences on regional infrastructure needs.
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Cross-border coordination and communication are key, as evidenced by the sheer amount of trade and traffic between California and Mexico. SANDAG has worked with Implan and the Colegio de la Frontera in Tijuana, as well as Mexican city and state governments, to develop a travel forecasting model to project and analyze cross-border traffic. It is now being used by the U.S. General Services Agency. Upcoming transportation projects in the area include adding more ports-of-entry and possibly reopening the San Diego and Arizona Railway.
Questions and Comments
Ms. Sutley: Does SANDAG have the ability to effect how transportation
money is actually programmed?
Ms. Crawford: Yes, as the Regional Transportation Agency.
Ms. Sutley: Are you looking at trying to move some of the goods movements
onto trains rather than trucks?
Ms. Crawford: Yes, though it is not something we have a lot of control
over. We are trying to get the east-west rail line opened, but we are trying
to influence that politically; we do not necessarily control the money.
Mr. Dos Santos: How does SANDAG's air quality planning consider
planning, or lack thereof, in Mexico?
Ms. Crawford: There is a separate Air Quality Resources Control Board
in San Diego. We have to comply with their standards. Regarding Mexico,
the Borders Committee is talking about the value in the notion of common
air basins.
Public Comment Session
Alven Lam, of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
informed the Board of the HUD program "Using the Geographic Information
Systems to Monitor Colonias," which uses the U.S. definition of "colonias" as
settlements along the border area, sometimes outside of municipal boundaries.
The living conditions have a strong impact on the environments, and the
program addresses both areas. Many agencies on both sides of the border
have expressed support for the program, which has four demonstration
sites and a focus on getting the communities to be the owners of the
projects. In one site, high-school students document locations with GPS
and take digital photos, all of which are integrated into the GIS. Mr.
Lam is focusing on how to sustain the project at the community level,
and how to bring the data together and provide it on the Internet. He
welcomed input from Board members, either at the meeting or in the future.
Mr. Dos Santos and Ms. Koerner noted that the Nogales project may have been born at a previous Board meeting, when HUD's Board representative, Shannon Sorzano, had an opportunity to see some of the living conditions along the border near Nogales. "These kinds of connections, and connections to the local community, really do make a difference that leads to actions," said Mr. Dos Santos.
Juan Antonio Flores of NADBank gave participants a brief history of the Bank, whose recent mandate expansion has allowed it to move into new areas. A new target sector in air quality has led to some recent paving projects in Mexico. Mr. Ganster wondered if there was a requirement to use recycled materials such as tires in the paving process. There is no actual requirement, but it is an ongoing concern and something NADBank pursues. Ms. Borja offered a cautionary tale from Texas, where a legislative mandate to use crumb rubber allowed for most of the crumb rubber to come from out of state. "Please, if you are going to use crumb rubber," she said, "use what is on the border. We have got to get rid of the waste tires all over the border."
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Border Waste Wise
Ray Bruno, Sony Electronics; Roberto Lujan
Mr. Bruno, an American citizen working in Tijuana, said he is very proud to work at a Mexican maquiladora. He gave an overview of Sony's corporate values and its dedication to recycling and reuse, which is both environmentally smart and lucrative. With the varying standards in the U.S. and Mexico, with standards a little higher in the U.S. in some areas and in Mexico on others, Sony tends to "comply a little more," meeting the legal requirement "and then some," which is also preparation for the future. Sony participates in voluntary audit programs in Mexico to review environmental aspects of legal compliance. In addition, its Green Partnership Program, which requires their suppliers eliminate certain chemicals from the products they pass on to Sony, has had an effect on other manufacturers.
Questions and Comments
Ms. Yoshii: In Mexico's voluntary audit programs, what efforts are
being made to communicate the results to the public?
Mr. Bruno: The state of Baja California is developing a logo we can
put on our boxes to say we comply. It would be good if the U.S. would recognize
these campaigns.
Mr. Lujan outlined the Border Waste Wise program, known in the U.S. as P3, Profitability through Pollution Prevention, which can be utilized by many facilities but which mainly targets small- and medium-sized businesses, because they often have the least resources in this regard. It is funded by a grant from the U.S. EPA. The fund permits repayment from project savings; there are no out-of-pocket expenses. It assists with cost-reduction and cost-avoidance projects, and pays for discounted consultant services. The companies make money, the fund gets its money back and can keep going. The P3 process has five steps: an initial report, an evaluation of the opportunities, a commitment to continue (at which point a business can pull out of the program), planning, and implementation. They calculate a return of investment for the project and determine how the fund will be repaid. They are hoping to develop some good relationships with a credit institution in order to facilitate the credit directly to the facilities.
Joint Session with Consejo Consultivos
Rene Cordoba explained that the Board and the Consejos of Mexico
have many of the same areas of concern. He said water issues were key,
and touched on the transborder transportation of hazardous waste; companies' deficiencies
in its handling and elimination (Sony excepted, he added in light of
Mr. Bruno's report); Mexican municipalities' receiving little
federal revenue, which creates unfunded mandates; the high sulfur content
in Mexican oil; traffic waiting at the border; an older vehicle fleet;
underutilization of railroads; pollution from mining; and problems arising
from aquaculture and inadequate fishing techniques. Air quality is an
area in which cooperation is flourishing, he said, citing the alliance
of the El Paso Airshed.
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Clemente Santos (COLEF) commented that there are so many activities the Consejos are focusing on, and it would be very interesting to find out how they do so much work. Mr. Cordoba replied that each group and each representative might only work on things of local concern. For example, his group works mainly on county environmental issues and on toxics and pest control.
Oscar Romo, Consejo Representative explained that the national and regional Consejos were created in 1995 by Presidential decree. They receive funding from the UN Program for Development. The National Consejo, in addition to representation by NGOs, academia, the private sector, etc., also has 10 members for gender, youth, and Indian community groups. Norma Mota, President of the Noth East Consejo further detailed the composition of the Consejos and said that each region establishes technical commissions according to its priorities. Andres Ochoa, Member of the North East Consejo was concerned that in the Northeast Consejo, most council members are from the center or southern part of the state, not the border area, and he would recommend augmenting the number of actual border representatives. Saul Guzman Garcia of SEMARNAT-Tijuana, discussed the lack of instruments to create public awareness, adding that only seven states in Mexico have environmental education plans.
Mr. Dos Santos offered a history of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, detailing operations, appointments, past reports, and other advice letters. The Consejos had their first joint meeting with the Board in 1997, and since then members of each organization have often been present at the other's meetings.
Board and Consejo members discussed future opportunities and possible joint work. Mr. Ochoa said it would be helpful to create a directory of border programs. Mr. Cordoba mentioned learning more about the Border Legislators Forum, as well as the promotion of international agendas such as the Stockholm Agreement on persistent organic pollutants, the Montreal Convention, and the Kyoto Treaty.
Ms. Mota reminded participants that it might not be a good idea for the two groups "to get married in the long term right now….We just met and are in the courtship stage." Ms. Koerner added that proposals for travel would have an impact on resources on both sides of the border, and that such plans would have to be approved, though she said the EPA had "a sincere interest in being supportive."Mr. Dos Santos said they might want to seek advice before the Board started advising another government in the form of joint publications with the Consejos, since that was not really in its mandate.
Overall, participants saw value in the interaction and exchange of perspective, and expressed a desire to review each other's reports and recommendations. Mr. Carrillo said, we can start with small steps by sharing agendas, calendars, membership rosters, minutes, letters of recommendations, and reports. Ms. Koerner hoped the Roundup newsletter could be a shared tool, though at the moment it is only available in English.
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Mr. Dos Santos thanked the Consejo members and presented them with special pins. He also presented Mr. Fry with a plaque to commemorate his last meeting as a member of the Board. Mr. Fry said he was very impressed with the quality of the reports and the level of enthusiastic participation from every Board member. It was his first real exposure to consensus-based decision-making, and he feels he is taking away so much more than he gave.
Day 2 - October 23, 2003
Approval of the Minutes
The minutes from the Del Rio meeting were approved with corrections,
which would be given to Ms. Koerner within the week.
Selection of 2004 Meeting Sites
The Board discussed past meeting locations and selected as 2004 meeting
sites Washington, DC (February 24-25th); McAllen, Texas (June 10-11);
and Douglas, Arizona (October 27-28). Bisbee, Arizona, and Silver City,
New Mexico, were also mentioned as possibilities. Washington was selected
in part to provide an opportunity for face-to-face time with representatives
and agencies, hopefully coinciding with the launch of the Seventh Report.
The Board did not decide on themes but floated numerous issues as options.
Update on Seventh Report/Planning for Eighth Report
Because the Board's annual report does not necessarily reflect its
meeting themes through the year, Ms. Gavin suggested including meeting
summaries in the report. The Board agreed. On the Seventh Report draft,
Ms. Koerner was concerned by a lack of parity across sectors and across
states, and she asked members to review it and make sure their sector/state
was adequately represented. Mr. Fry was disturbed that many statements
were not backed up by scientific evidence. Ms. Sutley mentioned a recent
California Air Resources Board study that could be inserted as a citation.
Mr. Dos Santos suggested that unsubstantiated areas, aside from things
that are widely known and accepted, could be recommended as subjects for
research.
Ms. Koerner asked that all other changes and all graphics and charts for the Seventh Report be sent to her office. She also asked members to start brainstorming for the Eighth Report, keeping in mind how many on the Board would be able to contribute to a topic. Most of the suggestions focused on water, which Mr. Phillips said would be of great importance to tribes and which was eventually adopted by the Board as the theme for the report. Mr. Fry also suggested describing an endpoint, the border in its perfect state: how crossings happen, how water is managed, etc. Then it is easy to see the gaps. Several people also mentioned natural resources in general.
Good Neighbor Board Member Report-outs
Mr. Fry announced the award of the first Linda B. Smith Scholarship
to a Texas A&M freshman. Mr. Klein reminded the group that other
countries are dealing with shared aquifers, too, which was discussed
at the Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management meeting. Mr.
Phillips discussed the toll illegal crossings take on reservations. Ms.
Gavin updated the group on new publications by EPA and the New Mexico
Department of Health, as well as on projects with tires and erosion control.
Ms. Sutley mentioned California's unexpected change in governors.
Mr. Dos Santos reported that the lawsuit between the U.S. IBWC and the
City of Nogales has been resolved.
The meeting adjourned at noon, when some members left for a field trip to the Tijuana Estuary.
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