New River flows north from nearby Cerro Prieto, through Mexicali city, Baja California, Mexico, to the United States through the city of Calexico, California, to the Salton Sea. River channels have existed since prehistoric times; However, the river as it is known today is formed from the failure of the embankment that resulted in a massive flood that re-created the Salton Sea. Today, river flows are not natural, mostly consisting of agricultural runoff, municipal disposal and industrial disposal. This river has been called the most polluted river of its size in the United States. Some projects have begun reducing and reducing pollution levels in rivers, including improving waste treatment infrastructure and attaching river channels.
Video New River (Mexico-United States)
Alur Edit
The New River channel starts in a volcanic lake, near Cerro Prieto. Today this lake feeds the Priero Cero Geothermal Power Station. The river flows northward 15 miles (24 km) through Baja California and 66 miles (106 km) through California to the Salton Sea, California's largest lake. The current on the border is about 200 cubic feet (5.7 m 3 /s), and about three times the current in the Salton Sea due to the disposal of aggregated farms.
The New River flow consists of waste from agricultural and chemical runoff from agricultural industry irrigation in the US (18.4%) and Mexico (51.2%), Mexicali (29%), and manufacturing plants operating in Mexico (1, 4%). At the moment the New River crosses Mexico-US. The border is near Calexico, California, a channel containing soups from about 100 contaminants: volatile organic compounds, heavy metals (including selenium, uranium, arsenic and mercury), and pesticides (including DDT) and PCBs. Drains also hold pathogens that cause tuberculosis, encephalitis, polio, cholera, hepatitis and typhoid; levels for many of these contaminants are in violation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Cal/EPA standard by several hundred fold. The fecal coliform bacteria are at a rate of 100,000 to 16 million colonies per milliliter at border checkpoints (perhaps more, as this is a measurement threshold), well above the US-Mexican agreement limit of 240 colonies.
The combined effects of increased, highly polluted airflow from the New River and agricultural runoff have resulted in increased levels of large blooming bacteria and algae in the Salton Sea. With a lack of outlets, salinity increases by about 1% per year. Due to the high levels of selenium, people were strictly advised to limit fish consumption from the Salton Sea in 1986, after which the number is likely to be a health risk. Increased water temperatures, salinity and bacterial levels caused massive mortality (1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2006, 2008), and created an ideal breeding ground for avian blight, cholera and Newcastle disease, which also caused large- scale. Epizootics from 1992-2008. Currently, Salton Sea has a salinity of 4.4% (4.4 parts per 100), making it saltier than sea water (3.5% for the Pacific), and many fish species can no longer reproduce or survive in the Salton Sea. Now it is believed that tilapia is the only fish species that can survive there for a limited time. Without restoration measures, the ocean is likely to increase toxicity, and remains an ecological trap for poultry species.
Maps New River (Mexico-United States)
History Edit
Creation of the modern course of the New River and Alamo River, and the creation of the Salton Sea, began in the fall of 1904 when heavy rain and snow melt caused the Colorado River to swell, defeating a set of gates for the Alamo Canal.. The resulting flood flows into the canal and penetrates the Imperial Valley dike. The sudden influx of water and the lack of drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea; rivers have recreated the great inland sea of ​​Salton Sink, an area that has often been flooded before. Nearly two years passed before workers could control the flow of the Colorado River and stop the flood, but the river was effectively dammed in early 1907 and returned to normal. The flood significantly increased the channels of the New River and Alamo. Some water continues to flow, even after the dikes are repaired, as larger channels are collected and bring agricultural runoff into the Salton Sea.
Although thorough documentation of pollution prior to 1960 is not available, the records show the New River was identified as a significant water pollution problem since the late 1940s. It has a very high concentration of coliform fecal bacteria that has a foul odor upon entering the US. Under the terms of the 1944 Water Treaty with Mexico, the governments of the United States and Mexico agreed to pay particular attention to the solutions of all borders. sanitation issues. The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) was first authorized by both governments to study the pollution of the New River from Mexico.
Studies in 1947 and 1948 to improve the New River problem resulted in a recommendation by the IBWC that a combined plant was built in the United States to handle waste of Calexico and Mexicali cities.
When Mexicali experienced a population explosion in the 1970s, and increased levels of pollution due to inadequate sewer infrastructure, countries made various attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to tackle river pollution, as documented by the Border Commission and US International Water. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. IBWC was founded in 1889 to safeguard the border, allocate river water between the two countries, and provide flood control and water sanitation. Having been seen as a model of international cooperation, in the last few decades IBWC has been widely criticized as an institutional anachronism, missed by modern social, environmental, and political issues.
Since the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s, industrial manufacturing has also become an increasingly significant contributor to pollution. The relatively loose environmental regulations in manufacturing plants or maquiladoras have enabled the plant to use the New River as an industrial waste disposal system for many years. Mexicali has become a bustling border town with over one hundred maquiladoras.
In the 1990s, a joint project was undertaken to improve Mexicali's wastewater infrastructure, but although the EPA pays 55 percent of an additional $ 50 million for the Mexicali sewage treatment facility and equipment repairs, repairs will not treat all waste disposal to the river.. Countries have not overcome the residual pollution that affects Mexico, and that has also been done across the border through the Imperial Valley and stored in the Salton Sea. By 2018, a bollard section of the Mexican-US barrier begins to build through the river. By 2018, most rivers in Mexicali have been closed, but can overflow out of the riverbed closed in the rain.
Environmental justice Edit
The smell of the New River near the border often stings, especially at night and during the summer when temperatures can reach 120 ° F (49 ° C). The New River is so heavily polluted that technicians usually wear two sets of gloves, aprons, and other protective clothing when testing the water. Discharged tires, trash, dead animals and other wastes coat the channel, foam spewed into the streets of one of Calexico's residential areas and into the downtown area, mosquitoes and other pests expanding during the summer; all these factors only serve to increase the risk of transmission.
In 2006, through another binational project, Mexicali completed building a second wastewater treatment facility to treat 10 to 20 million US gallons (38,000 to 76,000 m 3 ) per day of standard and partly processed waste thrown into the river. In May 2005, the New River was designated as one of two environmental justice water quality demonstration projects for the California State Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to try to address collaborative sources of pollution between various stakeholders.
Legislative Changes: SB 387 Edit
On July 25, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Senate Bill 387, introduced by Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego), which provides funding for the New River Development Project. It involves four major components:
- The junk screen;
- Construction of enclosed box culverts along current river channels through Calexico areas developed so that normal flow can be channeled back into the culverts, thus eliminating the exposure of the population and allowing for the processing of contaminated streams;
- Wetland development to address overall pollution, including pollution from sources in the United States; and
- Construction of green belts and recreation facilities in the restored New River floodplain.
Outlook Edit
According to the Colorado River Water Quality Control Agency, once the new wastewater treatment facility is fully operational, it will handle 10 to 20 million US gallons (38,000 to 76,000 m 3 ) per day of raw waste currently dumped into the New River. While this should result in improvements in the quality of New River waters at the border, particularly with regard to pathogens and nutrients, the binational projects fail to address other problems that have a significant negative impact on New River water quality at the border. More specifically, the projects do not address the haphazard waste disposal of the New River and its tributaries, nutrients and pathogens from Mexicali's Zaragoza sewage lagoon, untreated and partly treated industrial waste, agricultural runoff from the Mexicali Valley , and urban runoff and storms from the municipality.
In addition, Mexico intends to reclaim waste from processing plants for green belts on the spot. This will produce 20 million gallons of US (76,000 m 3 ) per day decrease the flow of the New River at the border. The loss of this flow, coupled with a projected 10 million million gallons (38,000 m 3 ) per day decreases the flow in rivers on the border when InterGen and Sempra Energy power plants reach capacity in Mexicali, under the terms of the Quantification Settlement Agreement, and water transfers between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego Water Authority will have devastating water quality impacts on the Salton Sea.
According to Imperial Irrigation District, although water pollution is a severe problem at the border, when the river enters the Salton Sea, the problem is "insignificant"; water quality increases as water flows north due to the addition of drainage water and through the natural cleansing that occurs within 60 miles (97 km). Agricultural pesticides have never been detected in the Salton Sea at a high enough level to cause public health problems.
See also Edit
- Cahuilla Lake
- Salton Sea
- The tributaries of the Salton Sea
- Mexican-American border
References Edit
External links Edit
- New River - The Most Filthed River in North America (documentary video)
- "Troubled Waters" - PBS Documentary on the New River - by California Connected, June 2, 2006 .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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