 |
|||||
|
Bowen warns of emerging global environmental issues
by Robb Fulcher
NAFTA and an evolving "global economy" are raising new environmental issues while the Internet and worldwide web are making them easier to solve, state Sen. Debra Bowen told the 37th national convention of the U.S./Mexico Sister Cities, meeting in Hermosa Beach.
"Air pollution, water pollution, those types of issues increasingly have to be addressed across international borders," the South Bay Democrat said in her keynote address to the convention on Saturday.
Speaking to about 120 conventioneers inside the Hermosa Beach Playhouse theater at the Community Center complex, Bowen pointed to manufacturing jobs that have crossed the border to Mexico since the passage of the free trade agreement. She questioned whether environmental pollution is being shipped south along with the manufacturing.
"Are we giving you a mixed blessing?" she asked.
"Everyone thinks it's a net gain to open the borders and have free trade, but we may be opening the door to environmental problems as well," she said.
Bowen mentioned an issue that reached to the north of the U.S. border when a Canadian firm filed a lawsuit claiming that California officials violated NAFTA provisions by directing the removal of the chemical MTBE from automobile gasoline.
MTBE was found to cut auto emissions, but it also was found to pollute groundwater, prompting officials to shut down water wells in Santa Monica and some other parts of the state.
In matters crossing the southern U.S. border, Bowen cited "ongoing discussions" about Colorado River water that flows into Mexico, and a huge coastal salt plant planned by the Mitsubishi Corp. and the Mexican government 600 miles south of San Diego.
"You wouldn't think this would be a focus of concern for California activists, but it turns out that this area is a major California gray whale refuge," she said.
A disagreement over potential harm to the whales probably will continue even after environmental studies are completed, Bowen said.
"We are going to have conflicting science on this," she said.
Bowen said that Californians could learn from sustainable forestry techniques being employed in parts of Mexico. Meanwhile Mexicans, who are considering deregulation of their electrical system, can learn from the unanticipated "challenges" faced by Californians after the deregulation of hydroelectric power, she said.
"The global economy is putting those issues into sharper focus," Bowen said. "Sister Cities is among the programs that can be helpful in these issues."
Hermosa maintains a sister city relationship with Loreto, Mexico.
Bowen said that governmental machinery does not exist to solve all the international environmental problems.
"It depends on people working together to solve those problems," she said.
The Internet and worldwide web have greatly eased communications between officials and activists spread across broad geographical areas, she said.
Bowen chairs the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. She has authored numerous pieces of environmental legislation, including a recent law giving the California Integrated Waste Management Board more power to clean up illegal tire dumps.
Other scheduled convention speakers included U.S. Rep. Steve Kuykendall, R-South Bay, SolarQuest President Ron Senson, Doretta Winkleman, education director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, and James Aldinger, a spokesman for the local environmental group VOICE.
The three-day convention opened with a welcoming party at Ein Stein's restaurant and closed with pancake breakfast hosted by Hermosa firefighters. ER