Special Projects Overseen by Border Affairs
Since 2008, the EPA has awarded grant funding to the Border Affairs team to contract for six “special projects” related to air quality or energy generation and use in the border region.
Since 2008, the Border Affairs team has received funding from EPA on several occasions for “special projects” related to air quality in the border region. The team has contracted with appropriate outside parties to implement these projects (more details can be obtained by clicking on the hyperlinks):
- Identification and testing of emission-reducing technologies for drayage trucks (in the context of the border region, these are short-haul trucks that transport goods from a warehouse on one side of the border to a warehouse on the other side)
- Energy efficiency (project has two parts—one for local government and one for an industrial sector)
- Pilot project on renewable-based electricity for off-grid colonias
- Support for the Texas General Land Office's Border Energy Forum
- Collaboration with Mexico on updating the emissions inventory for Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua
- Installation of air monitoring equipment called an automatic gas chromatograph (AutoGC) in El Paso to measure volatile organic compounds that contribute to ozone formation
The first four of these projects were completed by August 2010 or earlier. The fifth and sixth projects on the list have been more recently funded and are expected to be completed in 2011.
