Environmental Cooperation and Justice at the Texas Border

US Removal of Environmental Justice Requirement

Among the many executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first days in office, one rescinded Executive Order 12898, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, which required federal agencies to address environmental justice issues. Environmental justice initiatives aim to ensure equitable access to a healthy, sustainable environment for all people by addressing concerns such as poor air and water quality, pollution, food insecurity, and more.

Although the repeal of this order is often overlooked, it could be one of the most consequential for the Texas border region. Not only are Texas’s low-income and marginalized communities likely to experience its effects, but it may also prefigure a broader retreat from U.S.-Mexico environmental cooperation.

Vulnerable Communities Along the Texas Border

The Texas border region, from El Paso to Brownville, is home to some of the most impoverished communities in the U.S. A recent report by the Texas Department of State Health Services finds that 19% of border area families fall below the federal poverty line. Many of these families reside in one of the region’s more than 2,000 identified colonias or unincorporated settlements, which frequently lack adequate housing, sanitation, and waste disposal facilities.

US-Mexico Environmental Collaborations

Since 1992, acting under the authority of the 1983 La Paz Agreement established during President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico’s Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) have jointly supported numerous environmental protection and public health initiatives along the border. Environmental justice plays a key role in justifying and sustaining many of these efforts.

Dismantling these collaborative programs could have lasting adverse consequences for border communities on both sides, with Texas likely to experience the most severe impacts on the U.S. side.

Border 2025 Program

The Border 2025 Program, along with its related EPA-assisted projects delivered by the North American Development Bank (NADB), is the latest binational environmental cooperation initiative between the U.S. and Mexico. Providing a snapshot of Border 2025’s projects can capture what the absence of this and other similar programs could mean for Texans.

Since its launch in 2021, Border 2025 has directly supported at least half-a-dozen projects in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, including:

• Children’s environmental health project in Hidalgo County. 
• Real-time surface water monitoring pilot program in the lower Rio Grande region.
• Wastewater treatment facility survey with public education for affected communities.
• Salinity level forecasting for the lower Rio Grande region.
• Public air quality awareness project.

Water Supply and Quality

Other related-NADB projects under Border 2025 funded drinking water system improvements in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. Across the boundary, Border 2025’s wastewater improvement projects in Tamaulipas helped safeguard the Rio Grande River’s water quality for Texas communities.

Near the border’s upper boundary in the more sparsely populated middle-Rio Grande area, Border 2025 supported diagnostic studies of the Goodenough Springs catchment area. These studies revealed a transboundary groundwater connection serving the Rio Grande River in the vicinity of Amistad International Dam — the river’s most important mainstream dam — which has recently been compromised by sinkholes threatening its structural integrity. Understanding the region’s hydrology is vital for supporting the water supply and securing the dam for cities adjacent to the river, from Brownsville to Matamoros.

Additionally, Border 2025 supported essential water system improvements for Presidio, Texas. New drinking water and wastewater facilities were constructed for the small community of Vinton, Texas, and other communities in El Paso County’s Lower Valley Water District. Border 2025 also provided supplemental funding for an urban heat island study in the city of El Paso.

Air Quality

Further west in El Paso County, Border 2025 plays a key role in the innovative binational Joint Air Committee, which manages air quality for El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. These areas face one of the most challenging air management issues in North America, due to the rapid urbanization, international trade, and development asymmetries between the two sister cities. Over the past two years, Border 2025 has supported binational meetings, workshops, air quality assessments of the Bridge of the Americas’ impact, and the construction of new monitoring sites benefitting residents on both sides of the boundary.

Past Border Programs

The projects mentioned are only a small sample of the hundreds of projects supported by Border 2025 and related programs along the Texas border since binational environmental cooperation programs began over 30 years ago. Since 2000, the environmental justice components of the Border 2012, 2020, and 2025 Programs have been an important justification for many of its projects, including those supported by NADB.

Need for Binational Environmental Programs

Without the intentional inclusion of environmental justice, it is likely that fewer of the Texas border region’s most impoverished communities would have benefitted from Border 2025 and its past iterations.

Border communities are concerned that the removing environmental justice from federal agencies’ operations could signal the eventual cancellation of border environmental programs. The first Trump administration attempted to defund these programs by excluding U.S. financial support from presidential budget proposals between 2017 and 2020. Fortunately, Texas’ border area congressional delegation, along with state representatives from other border states, advocated for the program’s importance, securing a modest annual allocation of $2.6 million to sustain it. Whether they will succeed again is an open question.

The need for binational cooperation on environmental protection along the U.S.-Mexico border has never been greater, even with the significant achievements made over the past three decades.

Main Takeaway

Border cities continue to grow, driven by trade and industrialization, while informal settlements continue to emerge along the boundary. Mitigating the adverse effects of these developments is crucial to halting the deterioration of environmental protection, public health, and well-being in the border region. The U.S.-Mexico border environmental program plays a key role in addressing this challenge, and a focus on environmental justice helps highlight the region’s most pressing needs. The Trump administration should reverse course by supporting and renewing the U.S.’ commitment to the binational environmental program going forward.

This publication was produced on behalf of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Wherever feasible, the material was reviewed by external experts prior to its release. Any errors are the responsibility of the author(s) alone.

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