Extract
Transboundary water resources and public health in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Background: Environment of the Twin Cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora
The U.S.-Mexico border region stretches nearly 3,000 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. Metropolitan Nogales, the site of study, lies on the Arizona-Sonora frontier, within the western quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border. The area encompassing the twin cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, (known in Spanish as Ambos Nogales - literally, "Both Nogaleses") shares a common history, culture, and economy. As importantly, the two cities share a physical environment. As everywhere, this environment, its natural resources, and its dynamic processes do not respect human-created international boundaries. The interdependent nature of transboundary resources is nowhere better illustrated than in the water resources of Ambos Nogales. The Santa Cruz Basin Aquifer, upon which the two cities depend for their water supplies, is bisected by the border at Nogales. The aquifer is fed by the Santa Cruz River that originates in Arizona, loops down into Sonora and back up toward Tucson. A tributary, the Nogales Wash, flows through both cities and joins the Santa Cruz not far from the International Wastewater Treatment Plant that handles the sewage (liquid and solid waste, as opposed to sewerage, a term used throughout this paper to describe a system for removal of sewage) from both communities. Most of the surface flow of the Santa Cruz originates from effluent discharges and results in a rich, restored downstream ri-parian habitat. The Sonoran Desert, within which the Ambos Nogales communities lie, is an area of relatively low annual rainfall (400 mm or...See the full content of this document
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