Ben Lomeli - President Friends of The Santa Cruz River

"Environmental Justice and a Genuine Border Crisis in Nogales"

2pm   Tubac Community Center
While barbed wire is strung all over the border wall in Nogales, AZ, a real public safety crisis continues to stalk southern Arizona residents: the combined hazards of an increasingly flood-prone Nogales Wash and a deteriorating, dangerously-sited binational sewage pipe that lies along or crosses that Wash for much of its 9+ mile length in the US.
Although the pipe, called the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI), carries over 80% Mexican sewage, and the Wash drainage problems have been significantly worsening as Nogales, Sonora continues its explosive growth, our federal government has been dodging its actual responsibilities to protect local downstream communities from hazards created across our borders.
This presentation will describe the situation, in terms of hydrology, infrastructure, and politics. Finally, we will explain what Friends of the Santa Cruz River and our partners are doing to find a comprehensive solution to this complex and dangerous dilemma.