Binational Tour

PARTICIPANTS AT THE TIJUANA RIVER RESERVE - PHOTO

The bus tour of the Tijuana Watershed was an important environmental education event conducted by the EECC. The tour route followed the stream flow of the Río Alamar from its emergence from the Otay Mountains, through the highly urbanized setting of Tijuana to its two principal outfalls in the United States (the International Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Tijuana Estuary). The EECC accomplished several objectives with this binational tour, which was an important learning experience for EECC's members and also provided an excellent opportunity for “cross-talk” between our various Mexican and U.S. members and member organizations. It can also be thought of as an important EECC “product;” the idea is for the tour eventually to grow into a complete lesson on the Tijuana watershed for schoolchildren and other audiences. (Contact Erik Lee for logistical help with developing your own cross-border environmental tour.) Having reached these goals with the tour, the Council is poised to take on additional outreach projects involving watershed, an important focus in environmental education.

Following the Transborder Flow

On the breezy, overcast morning of January 16th, forty environmental educators from Mexico and the United States set out to follow the stream flow of the Alamar River from the mountains to the sea. From the green riparian area of Padre Canyon to the Tijuana Estuary, the tour bus wrapped its way through hillside shanty towns, past rows of industrial parks, along the border with its barbed-wire fence, and finally, in the glowing late-afternoon sun, out to seaside dunes and the estuary. The tour stopped at destinations on both sides of the border where environmental, social, and political experts spelled out regional challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the binational Environmental Education Council for the Californias.

A complex example of the intertwined fates of border communities, the Alamar River is a shared water resource that knows no political demarcations. Beginning in the hills of both countries, water in the Río Alamar flows down through Mexico’s second fastest growing city, collecting garbage and sewage before crossing into the United States to the International Wastewater Treatment Plant. After just primary treatment, the dried sludge is trucked back to Mexico to be landfilled while the remaining waste is piped into the Pacific Ocean.

Tito Alegría, a local university professor from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, laid the early morning groundwork with an analysis of the demographic and economic effects of Tijuana’s intense industrialization and urbanization. At Padre Canyon on the outskirts of the city, a series of speakers offered an overview of the geology, hydrology, political background, and potential for cooperative projects related to the Tijuana watershed. At Ecoparque, a research park offering an “alternative urban, ecological, and technical plan for the more sustainable development of Tijuana,” Carlos de la Parra, also from Colegio de la Frontera Norte, explained the site’s pilot model of SIDETRAN, a Decentralized System for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in Urban Areas.

After lunch, participants crossed the border on foot, changed buses, and arrived at the International Boundary and Water Commission office for a presentation and slide show. At the adjacent International Wastewater Treatment Plant, the group crossed over the malodorous sewage filter basins and comprehended the sober reality that the infrastructure to safely treat millions of gallons of sewage daily does not yet exist. Under the late afternoon sun, California State Parks educators guided the tour to its final destination, the Tijuana River Reserve, just north of where the watershed drains into the ocean.

Throughout the course of this amicable day, the EECC group of professors, organizational directors, government representatives, educators, and graduate students exchanged stories, ideas, and business cards. During the bus rides, walks, and over lunch, the region’s prominent environmental educators laid the groundwork for future friendships and partnerships. As “the informal ambulatory seminar” frequently changed language in mid-sentence, bilingual members attentively provided individual translation assistance where needed.

At the end of the day, EECC members returned to their homes from Ensenada to San Diego with a greater understanding of the environmental, social, and political challenges that face their rapidly growing region. Participants also deepened their understanding that there is a community and network of binational educators who share in the Council’s mission of advancing a culture of sustainability along the border. Perhaps the tour’s ultimate destination will be the development of partnerships that design effective environmental education programs that help people understand and resolve mutual and binational environmental concerns.