Raúl Grijalva: “My amendment will direct $4 million within the International Boundary and Water Commission to clarify the responsibility…”

“My amendment will direct $4 million within the International Boundary and Water Commission to clarify the responsibility for the maintenance of the International Outfall Interceptor, the IOI. This is in addition to, and separate from, the funding that currently exists for the long-overdue repairs of the IOI. I think it is important to put some historical context into this amendment. The amendment seeks to clarify responsibility, the responsibility of the community, the city of Nogales and the county of Santa Cruz, that make up the two major jurisdictions in that area most affected by the need for this amendment. It is an infrastructure issue; it is an interceptor. In 1944, the United States and Mexico entered into an agreement in which waste treatment was going to occur in the United States for Nogales, Sonora in Mexico. As time went by, since 1944, we now find that the waste coming from Mexico, 92 percent of the effort that the wastewater facility has to undertake is in Santa Cruz County and in Nogales. I mention that because of how we have to transport the waste from Nogales, Mexico, to the United States for treatment under the treaty that Mexico and the U.S. signed is 8.5 miles of pipes are needed to transport this waste. Over the last decades, and the people of those communities can attest to this, there is almost daily occurrences and seasonal occurrences during the rainy season of damage to this pipeline. The infrastructure is as old as the treaty.…”