NAFTA's Broken Promises: The Border Betrayed U.S.-Mexico Border Environment and Health Decline in NAFTA's First Two Years January 1996 ublf~ ~- Ot1zen . Public Citizen's Glob~l Trade Watch in cooperation with Red Mexicana de Acci6n frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC) Acknowledgements Gabriela Boye,; Peter Co()jJer, Michael Dolan, Jeremy Madsen, Chris McGinn, Laura McPeake, Darya Puskina, Tracy Rahn, Ja'/TIJ!s Scott, Lon Wallach, and Andrew lVheat greatly contributed to the writing of this report. The authors wish to thank the following people for the invaluable assistance in researching, writing and distributing this report: Ana Acuna, Joe Bellu&., Martha Brrye,;JoseBravo, Harry Browne, Dick Camp, RebekaDonaldson, DianeD'Arrigo, Kristen Engberg, Paula Forbis, Sarah Fort, Patti Goldman, Michael Gruenberg, Sister Maribeth Larltin, Angela Ledford, Erik Leve,; Berta Lujan, Bill Magavern, Ron Madn; Maria Munoz, Dr: Lauerence Nickl!'), Edward Psai, Dr. Carmen Rocco, Lori Saldana, David Sal~, Mary Tong, Tracy Williams, Heidi Welsh. Thanks to Richard Boren, Michael Gregory, Susan Mika, Mary Minette, 0'1'US Rud, Alejandro Villamar, Mark Spaulding, Dr: Sidney Wolfe, Nicola Zeuner, for their edito­ rial guidance. Special thanks to Kerri Fahy Hoffman, Eli1.abeth Schramm and David Vladeck. Public Citizen is a nonprofit membership organization in Washington D.C., representing consumer interests through lobby­ ing, litigation, research, and publications. Since its founding by Ralph Nader in 1971, Public Citizen has fought for consumer rights in the marketplace, for safe, and secure health care, for fair trade, for clean and safe energy sources, and for corporate and government accountability. Public Citizen has six divisions and is active in every public forum: Congress, the courts, government agencies and the media. To order additional copies of this report, send check or money order for $15 U.S. made out to Public Citizen to: Public Citizen Publications 1600 20th Street N.W. Washington, DC 20009 A spanish language version of this report may be Se puede obtenir una version espanola obtained from Public Citizen or by contacting: de este trabajo en enero de la: Red Mexican a de Accion frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC) Godard #20, Esquina Con Calle de Delibes La Colonia, Victoria 07790, Mexico DF ©1996 Public Citizen. All rights reser ved. No part of this document may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the authors. ISBN 0-937188-03-4 P✓uhll~ (tf1zen Buyers Up • Congress Watch • Critical Mass • Global Trade Watch • Health Research Group• Litigation Group Joan Claybrook. Presidenr ';Due to a computer error, the endnote numbers in Chapters · 6 and 7 are incorrect. Until we send you a corrected final copy, please call us if you have a question about an endnote in these chapters. Thank you. Ralph Nader, Founder 215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE• Washington, D.C. 20003 • (202) 546-4996 Table of Contents •' Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... I ~ ;' :Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................... iii s«tlon I: Monitoring Border Environmental and Health Condition& Two YMts Aftsr NAFTA Chapter 1: Booming Maquiladora Border Free Trade Zone ............................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Hazardous Waste Along the Border ............................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3: Border Health Crisis: Neural Tube Birth Defects ..................................................................... .'...... 16 Chapter 4: Fouled Water: Sewage Treatment and Border Water and Health Problems ....................................................................................... 22 Chapter 5: Border Air Pollution ......................................................................................................................... 32 Section II: NAFTA•Related Environmental Institutions, Resources Chapter 6: The Environmental Side Agreement and the Council on Environmental Cooperation ............................................................................ 41 Chapter 7: Border Environmental Cooperation Commission and the North American Development Bank .......................................................................... 54 ·Recommendations ........................................................................................................................................... 83 Introduction As the massin: effon to gain l·.s. Congressional ap­ an increase in jobs. wages would rise. the en\'ironment­ pro\'a) of the =',"orth American Free Trade Agreement panicularly the area along the C.S .•~le xico border­ •. (:,..:AFTA) came to a head in '.\:o\·ember of 1993, the would impro\'e, relations be1',·een the peoples of '.\:orth f Clinton Administration released its comprehensi\'e •.\merica wo uld be enhanced, illegal drug trafficking be• "?\.-UTA Report on Emironmental Issues". In this 152 tween ;\AFfA nations \\'ould be reduced, enforcement page document, the Clinton Administration recognized of each nation's labor and enl'ironment.al laws would that "there are serious emironmental problems in :":orth be strengthened, illegal immigration would decrease, America, particularly along the l'.S. Mexican border, and the list "'ent on. that must be addressed in the context of expanded The promises on the emironment were particulad~· trade.~ The Administration's Report identified the is­ compelling. With ~AFTA opponents, proponents and sue at the core of a heated contro\'ersv on l';AFTA and the news media eager to personalize and emotionalize · the environment: ~Tiu q~stion tluJt Congms now fnrts, the NAfTA debate, the health and Jh-ing conditions and this &port attempts to an.nun; is wluthrr passagt of tlu along the V.S.-Mexico harder became a highly emo­ NAFTA will r.cawbat.t our mvironmental problnns or givt us Lional and visible aspect of the debate. The border area tfftelivt mechanisms to ame/ioratt thmi. •1 was a powerful symbol because a small free trade zone Two years later, in the fall of 1995, Washington DC­ already eltisted there lined with V.S.-owned manufac­ based Publk Citizen, in coordination v.ith the Mexico­ turing plants known as "maquiladoras." As a result of City-based Red Mexicana de Accion Freme al Libre large scale poverty, concentrated industrial de\'elop­ Comercio (R.\.1ALC) examined this very question. But men~. pollution and overpopulation, the border area rather than using a \'ariety of economic models and pre• had turned in 10 "a ,irtual cesspool and breeding ground dictions as the Clinton Administration did in its .1993 for infectious disease," according to the American ~ledi­ report, Public Citizen and R~1ALC gathered nearly two cal Association. ,·ears of real life e,idence of environmental and health The contro\'ers\' of what :--:AFTA would mean for the ~onditions along the C.S.•\.fexico border. environment wa; underscored b\' a di\'ision in the l'.S.emironmental mo\'ement. Citi.ng their satisfaction Methodology \,ith :,..:AFTA and its side agreements, fi"e major L' .S. In undertaking this task., Public Citizen conducted in­ environment.al organizations endorsed :,..:AFTA: the ~a­ teniews \.\ith more than one hundred different sources tional Wildlife Federation, the \\.'orld Wildlife Fund, the on how ~.-UTA was effecting the public health and the Emironment.al Defense Fund, the ~atural Resources De­ emironment of the t·. S.-~exico border area. lnter\'iews f ense Council and the :-.=ational Audubon Society. Most were conducted "ith scores of academics, aCti\ists, medi­ local and national emironmental organizations, includ­ cal donors, representati\·es from ::-.:AFTA's parallel emi­ ing the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, roninemal institutions, CEC, BECC and :"\ADBank,jour­ the Humane Societ\' of the Cnited St.ates, the American nalists and v.ith gO\·ernment officials ranging from t·.s. Societ\' for the Pre,:ention of CrueltYto Animals, Clean State attorneys general to \fex.ican embassy officials, from Water ·Action, Rainforest Action, En~ironmental Action EPA section heads to a local fire chief. Hundreds of ar­ and hundreds of others opposed ~AITA as a threat to ticles, from legal, business and medical journals, trade the ~orht Americanem-ironment. publications, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers '.'\AFT..\ proponents argued that NAFTA would sok·e were scrutinized for relevant information. Electronic in­ the health and emironmental problems occurring in formation sources, including internet distribution lists, the border free trade zone, and that without ::-.:AFIA world "i de web sites, news groups and "gopher sites,··were . these problems would get worse. If '.'\AFTA were imple­ also examined for information on l'\AFTA and the emi­ mented, they argued, the concentration of industries ronment. Public documents ofall kinds were scrutinized. in the border, and thus industrial pollution and human Drafts of sections of this report were re\iewed by the rel­ population would lessen, reducing the strain on the en• eYant authorities, experts and acthists most im-olYed and \ironment and the massi\'ely overburdened border in· affected. In