The City of Nogales completed waterline and street improvements along MacNab Drive and Perkins Avenue this year using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in partnership with Southeastern Arizona Governments Organization (SEAGO). And more improvements are on the way.

Work on the MacNab line began in 2017, replacing 1,500 feet of the 100 year old waterline. Phase II replaced an additional 2,100 feet. Both projects included higher capacity lines, new water service hookups, new road surfacing and hydrants. This project, completed in February, used City-leveraged CDBG funds administered by SEAGO totaling just over $1 million.

In 2018, Nogales worked with SEAGO to secure $1.2 million in Colonias Set-Aside CDBG funds to replace approximately 3,000 feet of the 120 year old waterline along Perkins Avenue in Nogalitos. The Perkins project also included new hydrants, water service lines, and streets with curb and gutter. The new streets tie into newly-rebuilt Edwards, Vera Cruz and Durango Streets, which channel stormwater from the new detention basin on the East side of Nogalitos. Those improvements, completed in 2018, were also funded through a $1.3 million Colonias award, with the Santa Cruz County Flood Control District as the applicant. These projects have brought significant improvements to the Nogalitos neighborhood.

This year, the City of Nogales secured an additional $840,000 in Colonias CDBG funds for another waterline and pavement project along Noon Street. This project, which will begin construction this fall, will replace 2,800 feet of waterline and pavement in the West Quadrant neighborhood. In addition, the City will use its regular CDBG funds for a waterline and pavement project along Camino del Sol, Ellis Street and Sonoita Avenue. That project, which will begin construction next year, will replace approximately 1,500 feet of waterline and streets.

When the Noon Street and Camino del Sol projects are complete, the City of Nogales will have replaced approximately two miles of water line and pavement using regular and competitive CDBG grants combined with City leverage funds over the last five years. In partnership with SEAGO which administers the rural CDBG program for the region, Nogales has become one of the top recipients of Colonias Set-Aside CDBG funds, a biannual competitive grant cycle averaging $2 million each round. Nogalitos, the West Quadrant and East Quadrants are Colonias recognized by the Arizona Department of Housing as eligible to compete for Colonias funds. Since the program began in 2010, ADOH has awarded $11.5 million in Colonias funds. About 30 percent of that total, $3.4 million, has been invested into the City.  

I was one of many who attended the September 21^st meeting of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission’s (IBWC) Southeast Arizona Citizens Forum.  I left the meeting feeling a bit disappointed as I had hoped the focus of the meeting would be the rehabilitation and improvements to the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI) and emergency repairs to Manhole 89, which was breached during monsoon flooding on July 25^th.  Instead, an inordinate amount of the meeting was devoted to a presentation from an IBWC attorney attempting to justify the agency’s plans to appeal a recent ruling by a federal judge that established that the IBWC – not the City of Nogales – is responsible for discharges  of untreated sewage and industrial contaminants stemming from deferred maintenance and stormwater surcharge to the IOI during periods of heavy rainfall. 

For those unfamiliar with this topic, the IBWC, is a federal agency whose mission is – and I quote directly from the IBWC website  – “to provide binational solutions to issues that arise during the application of United States - Mexico treaties regarding boundary demarcation, national ownership of waters, sanitation, water quality, and flood control in the border region.”  The IOI is a massive pipeline that carries 10 - 14 million gallons of sewage per day across the international border from Mexico to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant co-owned and operated by the IBWC.  

While the IBWC attorney did a fine job presenting the agency’s position at the meeting, to Santa Cruz County stakeholders, not to mention those downstream in Pima County, the issue of who is responsible for maintenance and repairs to the IOI, or who owns the line, is completely irrelevant.  What’s relevant is neither the City of Nogales nor Santa Cruz County possesses the capacity to repair, replace or maintain the IOI, and a minimum of $30 - $40 million will ultimately be needed to rehabilitate the IOI and defuse the threat to public health and safety this critical piece of infrastructure currently represents. 

Literally dozens of studies have been done to demonstrate the high cost of doing nothing.  Maintenance consultants tell their clients if they repair things before they are forced to do so, their returns are typically 3 - 10 times their original investment.  The IBWC has some excellent staff, and most of us truly appreciate the efforts they have put forth to address the issues with the IOI to date, especially considering the funding constraints faced by all federal agencies.  But it’s now time to stop pouring precious taxpayer dollars down the drain in federal court, accept the federal judge’s decision, and proceed with the emergency repairs and rehabilitation of the IOI – with or without a commitment of funding from the City or County – before it’s too late and we are all stuck with the exponentially higher cost of doing nothing to prevent what could be a major environmental disaster. 

By Randy Heiss, SEAGO Executive Director