Border Environment and Finance

Paying for the environmental improvement of the U.S. Mexico border was the issue Tuesday that brought together government and private representatives at the University of New Mexico. Sponsored by the UNM-based New Mexico Environmental Finance Center, the roundtable drew participants interested in new ways to fund and upgrade border infrastructure. Norm Fawke is director of the finance center. Clearly the most important kinds of needs have to do with providing clean water for residents to drink and treating waste waters so that they can be effectively discharged without creating pollution problems. Those are the two major issues. We also of course have air pollution problems that will need to be addressed and solid waste management continues to be an issue everywhere. The two top managers of the San Antonio Texas-based North American Development Bank spoke to KUNM at the meeting. Established by NAFTA, the newly opened bank is chartered to finance waste water, drinking water, and solid waste facilities in communities close to the U.S. Mexico border.

Initially operating with $750 million in capital provided by the U.S. and Mexican governments, bank officials say their mission concentrates on cross-border projects. According to Victor Vida Montes, the bank's deputy managing director, New Mexico could be both a beneficiary and a leader. So for example, the Paloma's Columbus area could do a single project. It's more efficient. It's better. And they're already talking about doing a binational school district there. So I think New Mexico can provide very good models for the rest of the border region, the sense that the Mexican border communities are very politically in tune with each other. And that's a good model to start with. New Mexico has grown up into six-hour existence, historically, in a very semi-arid area. Most of the rest of the border hasn't dealt with that reality. So I think a lot of the leadership in terms of how you do new ways of using water efficiently and an environmentally-sang way can come from New Mexico. You've got a lot of talent here that focuses on how to do things better from a water

use standpoint. And I think Texas, California, Arizona could learn from that perspective. Driving from Washington, New Mexico's senior senator Pete Domenici also participated in the roundtable talk. Domenici issued a statement Tuesday saying that current economic and political considerations mean reduced federal involvement in future environmental projects. But Alfredo Phillips, the director of the North American Development Bank, says he's optimistic about funding. We are working with members of Congress to ensure that the bank will be part of their priority since the border environment is without a high priority. It's part of health, it's part of the quality of life. Phillips adds that the bank plans to have a capitalization of $3 billion within the next four years. For the KUNM evening report, I'm Kent Patterson.