A long-awaited decision by the Mexican Treasury Secretariat has allowed the release of $3 million in badly needed technical-assistance funding for water and sewer projects in northern Mexican border communities. The bi-national, Ciudad Juárez-based Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) had put a hold on the funds—earmarked for use this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—after the Mexican Treasury changed the commission’s tax status in January 1999. The charter of the BECC, established under the environmental side-accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), exempts the agency from certain levies. The commission had asked Mexican fiscal authorities to restore the status it had enjoyed in its first three years of operation, from 1996 through 1998. After...
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A pipeline break in that sent thousands of barrels of crude oil into a Bolivian river that drains Lake Titicaca has not caused the widespread environmental damage initially feared, but it is blamed for making some local residents sick. "Fortunately, it was not an ecological catastrophe, but there was a strong social impact," says Jean Gabriel Wasson, a French hydrologist in La Paz who was the first person to report the Jan. 30 spill. Mario Villagra, head of the Health Ministry’s disasters and outbreaks unit, says there have been no human fatalities, but that the incidence of diarrhea had risen in communities along the Desaguadero River, where the spill occurred. Wasson spotted oil on the surface of the Desaguadero while driving back to Bolivia from...
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Chile is gearing up to reform its forestry and environmental laws. As a first step, the country’s National Forest Corporation (Conaf) and its lead environmental agency, the National Environmental Commission (Conama), have begun public consultations. Last month, Adriana Hoffmann, Conama''s new director, invited 15 lawyers of diverse political views to discuss how Chile’s Environmental Base Law might be improved. Business leaders argue that environmentalists have used the law to stall projects unfairly. But environmentalists assert that the law is skewed toward business, offering few means for the general public to protect its interests. There is, though, wide agreement that Conama ought to be an independent agency with ministerial status. The agency currently falls under the jurisdiction of the Secretary General of the Presidency, the...
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U.S. action this month to dislodge 200 protesters from the Navy bombing range on Vieques Island came amid a longstanding debate over the range’s impact on the environment and human health. Last June, a panel appointed by Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rosello said Navy activity “had a damaging and unrelenting effect on the environment, ecology, unique archaeological sites, natural resources and surrounding waters." Environmental groups charge that besides destroying plants and animals, practice bombings release toxins that can travel by air or water to reach the island’s 9,000 residents, who live eight miles from the firing range. High on the list of criticisms is the unauthorized use of depleted-uranium weaponry. In May of last year, the U.S. Navy said it mistakenly fired more than...
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