Collaboration and Compromise at the Borderlands: The Cal/EPA's Pilot Project for the New River

Abstract

Abstract

For over five decades, the New River has served as a component of the waste infrastructure of the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys and is considered one of the most polluted rivers in North America. Located within the transnational Salton Sea watershed, which overlaps California and Baja California, the river's toxic flow includes biological contaminants from millions of gallons of treated and untreated sewage, hazardous waste from industry, and various pollutants from agricultural and urban runoff. California has officially designated the river as a “drainage ditch” through Senate Bill 387, passed in 2005. The same year, the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) invited various stakeholders to participate in New River problem-solving through a Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) as part of the SWRCB's Environmental Justice New River Pilot Project (EJNRPP). Participants in the RAC include the non-profit Calexico New River Committee (CNRC) representing the strongest local leadership. To what extent can environmental justice policy address water pollution problems along the borderlands? How is regional collaboration shaping the objectives of the CNRC and SWRCB, two key players involved in the EJNRPP? I contend that the precautionary approach (PA) and cumulative impacts (CI) are strategically employed concepts with which stakeholders prioritize divergent goals in the process of collaborating to address New River pollution. Furthermore, I assert that the Pilot Project is fraught with significant limitations given the political momentum of the CNRC and binational nature of the water resource of concern.