Border 2012: U.S.-Mexico Environmental Program

The Border 2012 Program began in 2003 as a partnership of U.S. EPA, Mexico’s SEMARNAT (federal environmental agency and EPA counterpart), the four U.S. border states (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California) and the six Mexican border states (Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California), plus 26 U.S. border tribes.

Border 2012 has goals and objectives related to water quality, air quality, land contamination, environmental health, joint readiness for environmental response, and compliance and pollution prevention (see the Border 2012 framework document, beginning on page 13).

The Border 2012 Program divides the border region into four Regional Workgroups, as shown in the map below. By international agreement, the border region is defined as all territory within 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) on either side of the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 Program

Moving from the west to the east, one region includes California and Baja California, a second region includes Arizona and Sonora, a third region includes New Mexico, a portion of west Texas, and Chihuahua, and the fourth region includes the remainder of the Texas border region (from Big Bend to the Gulf of Mexico), Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

The Border Affairs team of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assists EPA's satellite office in El Paso in the third of those four workgroups.

The fourth workgroup, commonly referred to as the Four-State Regional Workgroup, has a more complex structure because of its geographical size and the number of local governments involved. In this region, the TCEQ's Border Affairs team works closely with EPA's Region 6 office in Dallas, plays a major role in organizing numerous committee meetings within the region, and collaborates with EPA in maintaining a Workgroup website.

For additional information regarding the Border 2012 program, see the EPA Border 2012 Web site.