Author Archives: John Dougherty

U.S.-Mexico commission fails to stop sewage plaguing border

The Trump administration is backing away from treaty mandate to “give preferential attention to the solution of all border sanitation problems.”
By John Dougherty
Posted on April 6, 2018 by John Dougherty

LAREDO, Texas — Tom Vaughan steers his two-person kayak across the 50-yard-wide Rio Grande River to an inlet on the Mexican side of the river. On either side of the creek plastic bags, diapers and shredded clothing dangle from the shrubs, providing a warning of the hazard ahead. Continue reading →

Raw deal: Decades of sewage overflows and health problems plague two Arizona border towns

Mystery untreated sewage appears in Mexico just across the border from an Arizona wastewater-treatment plant, city official says.
By John Dougherty
Posted on April 5, 2018 by John Dougherty

DOUGLAS, Ariz.—Public Works director Lynn Kartchner guides his city pickup truck down the overgrown, littered alleys of the Bay Acres mobile-home community in search of raw sewage. Continue reading →

Communities in US and Mexico at risk from sewage, pollution and disease

President Trump and Congress ignore the nation’s poorest residents along the U.S.-Mexican border, where an environmental health crisis threatens millions of lives.
By John Dougherty
Posted on April 4, 2018 by John Dougherty

IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif.—U.S. Border Patrol Agent Christopher Harris steers his truck along the hilly road next to the border fence separating this beach community in the extreme southwest corner of the U.S. from Tijuana, Baja California’s largest city. Continue reading →