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Van Horn Advocate
The need for aid to Mexico in dealing with their problems is most obvious in our part of the world.
What we have reference to is pollution and the environment. Most everyone has heard reports on how bad the air is in Mexico City - breathing the air there is said to be equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes per day.
Now, that pollution can be seen coming into West Texas, particularly in the Big Bend region and even as far as Guadalupe Peak. The skies are no longer as clear as they were just a few years ago.
Mexico City is now the largest city in the world with many residents living in cardboard "houses", no running water and few sewer systems. It is obvious that our government needs to work with the Mexican government to help deal with these problems.
Pollution along the Texas-Mexico border is also well documented and that needs to be addressed as it is affecting the health and welfare of citizens on both sides of the border.
Pollution is a worldwide problem and it needs to be addressed. Our government has made great strides in that area and we should share our knowledge to help preserve our earth and its people.
Progress on the Pecos River, like the river itself, never seems to move in a straight line. But two projects which members of the Red Bluff Water Power Control District have been working on for years could become a reality over the next several months.
General Manager Jim Ed Miller told Red Bluff board members on Monday the district is awaiting a vote in September by the Carlsbad City Council on rights to run a line away from Malaga Bend to man-made lakes, which would be used to store water removed from a salt spring which feeds into the Pecos River just north of the New Mexico state line.
The plan would improve the quality of water in Red Bluff Lake, which is used by farmers downstream along the river, while salt from the spring would be purchased by Sun West Salt Corp., under an agreement reached earlier with the Red Bluff board.
Miller also said an experimental project in New Mexico to reduce the number of water-hungry salt cedars along the Pecos River could be extended to Texas in the near future. State agriculture and parks and wildlife officials are scheduled to be in Pecos next month to view the salt cedar problem, and Pecos River Compact Commissioner Brad Newton is hoping to show them the success New Mexico has achieved with their project south of Artesia.
Replacement of the salt cedars, which arrived along the Pecos less than 100 years ago, with trees and grasses native to the area may greatly increase the water flow along the river, since one salt cedar can take in up to 200 gallons of water a day.
Improving the water quality and increasing the water supply to the Pecos Valley can provide a boost to the area's agriculture industry in the near future. It might even raise recreational use of the Pecos River, which is far less utilized by people here than around Carlsbad and Artesia.
With two state bureaucracies to deal with, not to mention state and federal environmental laws to worry about, Miller, Newton and other Red Bluff officials have had plenty of red tape to deal with while trying to solve the salt and the salt cedar problems. They should be congratulated for getting far enough to finally see a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail: news@pecos.net
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