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Border 2012Waste Policy Forum: Accomplishments

Border 2012 Land Contamination Accomplishments

Significant progress has been made to improve the border region's environment and public health in areas related to solid and hazardous waste management. This success is due to the collaborative efforts of US EPA, Mexico's SEMARNAT, all ten US and Mexican Border States, border municipalities, tribes, academia, and other partners. This page highlights achievements towards the Border 2012 Land Contamination goal.

Objective 1
Institutional and Infrastructure Capacity Building Priorities

By 2004, identify needs and develop an action plan to improve institutional and infrastructure capacity for waste management and pollution prevention as they pertain to hazardous and solid waste and toxic substances along the US-Mexico border. Starting in 2005, the plan will be implemented and concluded by 2012.

Binational Action Plan on Developing Waste Management and Prevention Infrastructure

The Waste Policy Forum has identified four priorities for improving the institutional and infrastructure capacity of waste management and prevention under the Border 2012 program. The Binational Action Plan on Developing Waste Management and Prevention Infrastructure describes the programs priorities and provides recommended actions to meet them. These priorities include:

Electronic Waste and Spent Lead Acid Batteries Capacity Building Workshop

A pollution prevention and waste management workshop on electronic waste and spent lead acid batteries took place December 4-6, 2007 in Tijuana, Mexico.

Tohono O'odham Undocumented Migrant Solid Waste Project

The Tohono O'odham Nation (Nation) has completed a project to clean up waste left by undocumented migrants and identify recycling markets for the waste. Up to 1,500 undocumented migrants cross the Tohono O'odham Nation each day, discarding 8 pounds of waste per person. This project, funded by EPA's Border 2012 Program and the Bureau of Land Management and the Nation, cleaned up 45 tons of waste from 84 sites, and identified recycling markets for 150 bicycles, plastics, backpacks, clothing and blankets. Also, the Nation identified 190 vehicles abandoned by drug and people smugglers. As of the end of 2007 the Tohono O'odham Nation has removed 52 abandoned vehicles.

Funding allocated to the Management of used oil in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area

Plans developed at the University of Texas, Austin propose to create an action plan to prevent pollution and improve institutional capacity for waste management of used oil in the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area.

Recycling of Used Oil

Based on the successful used oil recycling pilot study recently completed in Nogales, Sonora, in which 8,000 gallons of used oil was collected from over 50 small business generators, the implementation of an expanded used oil recycle program in Nogales, Sonora is underway. This expanded program will dramatically increase the quantities of used oil recycled by increasing the number of collections from small business generators in Nogales and by including the collection of household used oil wastes. This should significantly reduce the current dumping practices and thereby reduce the potential of contaminating the ground water and the washes which flow into Nogales Arizona. This project should provide a model which can be duplicated in the other border cities and thereby significantly reduce the environmental impact caused by the illegal dumping practices on the Mexican side of the border.

Scrap Tire Pile Prevention

View Land Contamination Objective 3 for a description of scrap tire pile prevention accomplishments.

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Objective 2 - International Electronic Exchange of Export/Import Data

By 2004, evaluate the hazardous waste tracking system in the United States and Mexico. During the year 2006, develop and consolidate the link between both tracking systems.

Hazardous Waste International Electronic Exchange of Export/Import Data

The US, Mexico, and Canada are working with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) on a project which will allow all three countries to electronically exchange data on hazardous waste exports and imports within North America. Currently, hazardous waste exports and imports are tracked in a paper-based system. As part of this project, the governments are developing common data standards for export requests and consent documents and a method for sharing this information electronically.

Improving the Transboundary Tracking of Hazardous Waste in North America: A Regional Approach to a Global Effort (PDF) (4 pp, 670K, About PDF) Exiting EPA (disclaimer), a September 2007 fact sheet from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, provides a detailed description of the North American electronic data exchange project.

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Objective 3 - Scrap Tire Cleanup

By 2010, clean up three of the largest sites that contain abandoned waste tires in the US Mexico border region, based on policies and programs developed in partnership with local governments.

Tire Pile Cleanups

Over four million scrap tires have been cleaned up in the US-Mexico border region since 2004. SEMARNAT and EPA collaborated with local and State governments, the private sector, and local citizens to complete these clean-ups. Most of the tires have been used as tire derived fuel in cement kilns.

Centinela Tire Pile Cleanup

The removal of 1.2 million tires from the Centinela tire pile near Mexicali, the second of the three largest tire piles along the border, has been completed. The tires were processed and used as fuel in cement kilns in Baja California and Sonora. This cleanup follows the INNOR tire pile cleanup last year of 420,000 tires. The cleanup has reduced land contamination and public health risks in the Mexicali area.

Ongoing binational tire cleanup in Ciudad Juarez

EPA is working with Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC), the municipality of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and GCC Cemento, S.A. de C.V., Samlayuca (the local cement plant) to remove approximately 620,000 scrap tires from the Juárez pile. Every month about 30,000 tires go into the pile and approximately 60,000 are removed and sent to the cement plant as tire derived fuel (TDF). The federal government of Mexico, the state of Chihuahua, the municipality of Ciudad Juárez and the US EPA have provided $160,000 in support of this project, with the EPA providing $67,000 in Border 2012 grant funds. This project will help showcase the advantages of using scrap tires for energy generation in the US- Mexico border region.

Waste Tire Pile Cleanup Efforts in Arizona/Sonora

The removal of 80,000 scrap tires in San Luis through public-private partnerships was completed in late 2007. The tires were sent to cement kilns and used as tire-derived fuel. The cleanup has reduced land contamination and public health risks in Mexico and Arizona. Outreach efforts on actions needed to develop an integrated scrap tire management program in San Luis are on-going.

EPA awards $28,000 to city of Brownsville to develop Crumb Facility in Lower Rio Grande Valley

This project will analyze available tire recycling technology in order to determine local needs for incorporating crumb rubber applications, estimate the quantity of waste tires generated annually, and construct and operate a crumb rubber facility in the region.

Project aims to incorporate waste tires into highway construction material

This project will evaluate applications of waste tires (tire bales) as a sustainable technology solution for highway engineering projects, and will focus on an evaluation of waste tires as roadway subgrade and base material. The project will also provide science-based information to help solid waste managers process and reuse the waste tires in a safe manner.

Border 2012 Scrap Tire Group

In 2006, the Border 2012 Tire Group was created to emphasize cooperation among stakeholders who have an interest in border scrap tire issues. These stakeholders include governmental entities, academia, the private sector and non-governmental organizations. The group meets annually and has over 200 members.

US-Mexico Border Scrap Tire Inventory Summary Report

The US-Mexico Border Scrap Tire Inventory Summary Report (PDF) (21 pp, 1.5M) is the first inventory to be completed of scrap tires for the entire US-Mexico border region. It features a GIS map of scrap tires in the region. The report can be used in the decision making process for preventing scrap tire piles. It was completed in May 2007.

US-Mexico Scrap Tire Integrated Management Initiative (Tire Initiative)

The US-Mexico Scrap Tire Integrated Management Initiative (Tire Initiative) defines the principles and actions necessary to develop sustainable scrap tire management plans. It was created with the input of the Border 2012 Scrap Tire Group and resulted from commitments made at the 2004 US-Mexico Binational Commission meeting. In October 2006, the Tire Initiative was signed by the Border 2012 National Coordinators, EPA's Jerry Clifford and SEMARNAT's Teresa Bandala.

Collaborative Effort on US-Mexico Scrap Tire Integrated Management Initiative

In order to implement the Tire Initiative and to reduce current and future tire piles, EPA and SEMARNAT launched an outreach campaign. The US-Mexico Scrap Tire Initiative Collaborative Effort is geared towards Border States, municipalities and other governmental and nongovernmental entities. The goals of the campaign are to: increase awareness and understanding of the Tire Initiative; promote actions to cleanup and prevent future tire piles; and obtain commitment from Border States, municipalities and other governmental and nongovernmental entities to collaborate on the Tire Initiative by signing a Letter of Understanding.

Tire Initiative Collaborative Effort Success:

Border 2012 Scrap Tire Action Plans

A compendium of Border scrap tire projects, the Border 2012 Scrap Tire Action Plans has been created. The projects highlighted are being carried out by Border 2012 Scrap Tire Group members.

New Mexico-Chihuahua Rural Task Force Scrap Tire Clean-up Project

The Border 2012 New Mexico-Chihuahua Rural Task Force completed a project in Palomas and Ascensión, Chihuahua that consisted of a technical workshop on scrap tire management and disposal options for rural communities in the task force region; an assessment of location and size of scrap tire piles in Palomas and Ascensión; education and outreach on proper disposal of scrap tires including development and distribution of outreach materials; and clean-up and baling of scrap tires.

Bi-national Community Action for Environmental Cleanup Education

The focus of this EPA Region 6 funded project is on education and removal of abandoned waste tires from a large stockpile in the US-Mexico border region of Luna County, New Mexico. The project focused on local action coupled with concepts of health promotion, community beautification, and literacy, thus creating community awareness about the environmental issues associated with the improper management of scrap tires.

As a result of the efforts of New Mexico State University College of Health and Social Services, the Universidad Autonoma Ciudad Juarez, and the local community, over 160,000 tires were removed from a 120 acre site. The cleanup was completed in 2007.

Objective 4 - Clean-up and Restoration of Contaminated Sites (Revised)

By 2012, apply a binational framework on clean-up/remediation and restoration of sites contaminated with hazardous waste or materials policy at least once in each of the four regional workgroup geographic areas.

Metales y Derivados

Metales y Derivados is an abandoned lead recovery facility in Tijuana, which recovered lead from vehicle batteries and other materials containing lead. This site was closed in 1994 by PROFEPA and SEMARNAT due to substandard hazardous waste management. Since 2004 when cleanup was initiated, 2,000 tons of hazardous waste have been removed and 50 tons of lead smelter process equipment have been recycled in Mexico.

A capping remedy design plan for the Metales y Derivados toxic waste site in Tijuana has been approved and the construction phase has begun. The construction phase is being implemented by Baja California's SIDUE (Secretary for Urban Development and Environment) with the continued support from the Metales Technical Workgroup which includes a variety of stakeholders including state, local, and federal representatives, members of the local community, and EPA. A consultant has been made available to provide technical assistance to the community during the construction phase and a full time engineer in the field is facilitating the exchange of information between the community and the government about progress being made and assisting in resolving any issues from the community.

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