U.S.-Mexico Talks Support Border Cleanup

States on the U.S.-Mexico border must work together against environmental dangers that are likely to grow as trade increases, governors of the border states said here Friday.

At an amiable but uneventful two-day conference, the governors extolled the projected economic benefits of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement to a region where binational economic integration is becoming a reality.

But the 10 governors devoted much of their time to the pressing problems of industrial pollution and toxic waste dumping that the transborder economy has produced.

The most significant event did not even occur at the conference, but was clearly timed as a get-tough message: The Mexican federal government Thursday revoked with great fanfare the operating license of a toxic waste incinerator in Tijuana.

“We cannot let the environment suffer for reasons of economic development,” said Baja California Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel, who co-chaired the conference with Gov. Pete Wilson. They were joined by the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and the Mexican governors of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora and Tamaulipas.

Two weeks ago, environmental activists from both countries led a series of simultaneous protests against the incinerator and three proposed hazardous waste facilities along the Texas border. Wilson said the governors are keenly aware of such concerns.

“Overall, we welcome as a very good first step the border Integrated Environmental Plan” approved last month by the United States and Mexico, Wilson said.