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Pollution of the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) River by sewage
Mexico
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2 months agoProblems
Pollution of the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) River by sewage
The Rio Grande is known as the dividing line between the United States and Mexico, but Borderland residents say U.S. and Mexican authorities are failing to protect its primary function as an ecosystem. The river is in a critical situation, since it has been polluted with heavy metals, sewage water and does not have a natural flow in certain areas. Along with its reduced and regulated flow, the river frequently contains high levels of salts and bacteria, as well as agricultural and industrial chemicals. Such contamination affects a wide variety of species. For instance, high levels of both mercury and selenium have been detected in many of the river’s fish, in aquatic insects, and in numerous bird species that feed on aquatic organisms. Migratory birds and other species are impacted by pollution in the river. At least seven species of fish have now disappeared from the Rio Grande in the Big Bend area, including the American eel, the sturgeon and the Rio Grande silvery minnow. Also, at least five native mussels may be gone, since only the dead shells of three species have been found in recent years. And the Big Bend slider (a species of turtle) may soon disappear since it is adapted only to swift water conditions.
The greatest threat to the river’s overall health is reduced its flow
For millions of years, the Rio Grande has been one of the greatest rivers of North America. In an otherwise dry and seemingly barren desert, the Rio Grande has produced a sparkling ribbon of water and lush, green vegetation teeming with fish, birds and other forms of wildlife. Unfortunately, over the past one hundred years, the Rio Grande has changed dramatically, until today, it is little more than a shadow of its former self. Impoundment, irrigation and other human uses have reduced its flow dramatically, until it no longer floods in a natural cycle (something that is extremely important to both vegetation and wildlife). Perhaps the greatest threat to the river’s overall health is its reduced and/or regulated flow. In recent decades, the construction of dams and the tremendous growth of cities, industry, and agriculture along the Rio Grande have diverted huge amounts of water. Sometimes the river below El Paso is nothing more than a dry wash. Where does the water come from? It is mostly the Rio Conchos which originates in the mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico, and enters the channel of the Rio Grande near Presidio, Texas. This river has also been reduced due to growing agricultural and municipal use in Mexico. When this reduction is coupled with recurring, natural droughts, the results can be disastrous.
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Timelines
2024
April
USGS study finds PFAS levels increase in Rio Grande as it flows past Albuquerque. They are in everything from non-stick cookware, and water-repellant clothing to firefighting foam: they’re manmade chemicals called PFAS. They have been found in the soil around Holloman Air Force Base and Santa Fe. Now, scientists in Albuquerque are measuring how much of it is in the Rio Grande. Unfortunately, state environment officials say PFAS is becoming more and more difficult to avoid. Two recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, done in cooperation with the New Mexico Environment Department, found the Albuquerque urban area “significantly contributes PFAS to the Rio Grande.” Researchers noted that the PFAS levels changed over the 24 hours the team took samples from the Rio Grande. Some of the changes seemed to be from treated wastewater being released into the river. Other changes may have been from stormwater washing PFAS off streets and other surfaces in the Albuquerque area when it rained. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set its first-ever official limit on PFAS in drinking water. Officials say communities that pull water from the Rio Grande to drink treat it first before it is consumed by people.
2023
August
Environmentalists are accusing the city council in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez of polluting the Rio Grande, which is shared by Mexico and the United States, with the unsanitary flow from at least seven contaminated sewage streams. El Chamizal Defense Front spokesman Daniel Delgadillo Diaz told EFE that the streams emanate from an inhabited area of the Sierra de Juarez where sewage drainage is deficient or non-existent. The seven contamination locations are located along the first – or westernmost – three kilometers (about 1.9 miles) of the Rio Grande along the border between the US and Mexico. As per an international agreement, every year the US provides water for irrigation to Mexico from the Elephant Butte and Horse Lake dams in New Mexico along some 500 km (310 mi.) of the Rio Grande, known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo. The water arrives clean at the border where Texas, New Mexico and the Mexican state of Chihuahua meet, but the first three km of the Rio Grande, where it touches Mexican territory, is contaminated with sewage from these seven discharge points. “There are seven sewage discharge points from the drainage of the Municipal Water and Sanitation Board (JMAS). It’s very serious, it can be seen how the water comes from the US dam and here it (becomes) contaminated with sewage,” Delgadillo Diaz said during a tour of the area provided to EFE. The environmentalist has identified the sewers from which sewage flows and is channeled via streams that the city had created exclusively for rainwater. The channels come together and become sewage streams that then discharge into the Rio Grande. Another concern is the possible seepage of contaminated water into the Hueco-Mesilla Bolson Aquifer that feeds Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas.
February 12
The fourth Cleanup of El Río Grande River / El Rio Bravo was carried out, with the participation of more than 500 volunteers only in the Ciudad Juárez D 4110 Area. With the participation of Rotarians from the 2 Clubs in the United States and 6 Clubs in Mexico, Rotaractors, friends, high schools (4 buses of teachers, students and family members) government health and public safety entities, and companies and business people. This time it was not simultaneously in the other cities due to the commitments of Rotarians ( Coordinators) in those cities but the cleanups will take place on different dates. In Ciudad Juarez, more than 6 tons of garbage and plastic were collected. On this occasion, we were able to see the large amount of plastic and garbage, necessities, clothing, shoes, blankets, and medicines that migrants leave when crossing into the United States, the significant amount of garbage that affects the waters of the El Rio Grande river/ El Rio Bravo.
2022
May
El Chamizal Defense Front spokesman Daniel Delgadillo Diaz said that his organization filed a protective lawsuit (“amparo proceedings”) against the inaction of the JMAS, the International Boundary and Water Commission (CILA) and the Mexican National Water Commission (Conagua), claiming “carelessness, inattention and negligence” by these entities. Among the evidence presented in the lawsuit is a video of the discharges along with laboratory samples determined to be sewage, as well as an account of the damage caused to crops in the Juarez Valley, the place where the irrigation water arrives.
2021
From August 2021 to January 2022, El Paso Water discharged sewage from El Paso's West Side into the river following a wastewater main break. The utility is midway through its cleanup and remediation efforts.
2003
By May 2003 the extreme drought of the past ten years had reduced the river’s flow to the point where, for the first time in fifty years, it actually ceased for a few weeks. National Park staff noted significant areas in both Santa Elena Canyon and Mariscal Canyon where the river consisted only of stagnant pools, with no flow between them.
1996
A binationally funded wastewater treatment plant went online in Nuevo Laredo. But not all the city’s infrastructure has been updated, and broken pipes litter its sewer system. That means 5 million to 6 million gallons of raw sewage still enter the river from Nuevo Laredo each day.
1994
In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico alone during the mid-1990s, an estimated 25 million gallons of raw sewage entered the river each day. Momentum to clean up the river increased in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which USA and Mexico signed in 1994.