Something else Mexico exports to the U.S.

Anyone want to go swimming in the New River? That flows from Mexicali in Baja - where it receives a helpful heaping of untreated sewage - to the Salton Sea in the U.S. As of 1979, the level of intestinal bacteria was 1 million times higher than is permissible for U.S. rivers.

From "Clean it up: The filthy New River is a disgrace":

On any given night, scores of Mexican migrants seeking to enter the United States illegally float down the New River, hiding amid its coagulated white foam and counting on the river's noxious filth to keep the U.S. Border Patrol at bay. After their immersion in the most disease-breeding water on the continent, some of these migrants then move on to work in agriculture and food-service industries in California.

Border Patrol agents who accidentally fall into the New River while pursuing illegal migrants are immediately sent to a hospital to be disinfected...

There's some sunshine on the horizon, but the SDUT suggests that the U.S. should lean on their counterparts upstream to do more, like no longer using a river that enters our territory to dump their raw sewage.

On a related note, see "Line the canal: Mexico's opposition to U.S. project unfounded". Basically, one of our canals has leaks, and our friends south of the border have been counting on those leaks to mooch our water. They get water from the Colorado, but they mismanage it. As with the other article, the SDUT suggest we get a bit more forceful in our dealings with our friends.

Immigration2005b · Mon, 06/13/2005 - 02:55 · · Importance: 1