The New River is a river that runs from Mexicali, Baja California, in Mexico into the United States through Calexico, California. It is considered to be the most polluted waterway in North America. It was formed in 1905-1907 when the Colorado River washed out diversionary works and flowed into the region’s basin, also forming the Salton Sea and the Alamo River. Immediately after its creation, the channel was used as a drainage system for the growing settlements. The New River flows north 15 miles through Baja California and another 66 miles through California onto the Salton Sea. Flow at the border is approximately 200 cubic feet per second (cfs) (or 144,800 ac-ft/yr). The New River has been recognized as a significant pollution problem since the late 1940s, primarily because of its extremely high concentrations of fecal Coliform bacteria and the stench at its entry to the U.S. With population growth and an inadequate sewer infrastructure, Mexicali has contributed an increasing amount of raw sewage into the New River, and in the mid 1980s the extent of the problem was finally officially recognized. Since the passing of NAFTA in the 1990s, industrial manufacturing has also been an increasingly significant contributor to pollution. Mexico's relatively lax environmental regulations on manufacturing plants or maquiladoras has allowed these plants to use the New River as a waste drainage system over the years. Today Mexicali is an industrial border city with over one hundred maquiladoras. The problem is expected to worsen, as Mexicali’s population of about 1.3 million continues to expand. The Murray River in Australia. ... Mexicali is the capital of the state of Baja California, Mexico. ... Location [[Image:{{{image_map}}}|280px|Location of Calexico, California]] {{{map_caption}}} Political Charateristics County Imperial Mayor Alex Perrone Physical Characteristics Incorporated 1908 Area      Land      Water 7. ... The Colorado River from the bottom of Marble Canyon, in the Upper Grand Canyon Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the... The Salton Sea (with local/regional cities) The Salton Sea is an inland saline lake, located in the Sonoran Desert in Southern California north of the Imperial Valley. ... Alamo River is a river located in Californias Great Basin. ... Coliform bacteria is used often as indicator of sanitary quality of foods and water. ... Nafta or NAFTA may refer to the fact that Greg Mundy likes large objects in his ass, or: an acronym for the North American Free Trade Agreement an acronym for the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement the town/oasis of Nafta, Tunisia This is a disambiguation page: a list... A maquiladora (or maquila) is a factory, the majority of which are located in Mexican border towns, that imports materials and equipment on a duty- and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing. ...

Health Impacts

The New River’s flow is composed of waste from agricultural and chemical runoff from the area’s farm industry (69.6%), human waste form the ever-expanding population in Mexicali (29%), and manufacturing plants operating in Mexico (1.4%). The channel contains a stew of about 100 biological contaminants, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals (including selenium, uranium, arsenic and mercury), and pesticides (including DDT) and PCBs. The waterway also holds the toxins that cause tuberculosis, encephalitis, polio, cholera, hepatitis and typhoid; levels for many of these contaminants are in violation of U.S. EPA and Cal/EPA standards. The stench of the New River near the boundary, particularly at night and during the summer, is oftentimes overpowering. Discarded tires, trash, dead animals and other wastes line the channel in Mexicali, foam blows into the streets of one of Calexico’s residential areas and toward its downtown area, mosquitoes and other pests thrive during the summer season, all of these factors only serve to elevate contagion risk. Scores of undocumented immigrants are also exposed as they use the river to enter the U.S.; immigrants often evade Border Patrol because agents will not enter the water to detain them. Those who succeed in crossing will rarely receive adequate medical attention or screening; and they will often find jobs in the agricultural or food service industries, carrying New River diseases to their various destinations in California and across the U.S. Mexico and the United States have begun to work cooperatively to address New River pollution from Mexico. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemical compounds that have high enough vapour pressures under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere. ... The term heavy metal may have various more general or more specific meanings. ... General Name, Symbol, Number selenium, Se, 34 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 4, p Appearance gray, metallic luster Atomic mass 78. ... General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ... General Name, Symbol, Number arsenic, As, 33 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 15, 4, p Appearance metallic gray Atomic mass 74. ... General Name, Symbol, Number mercury, Hg, 80 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 6, d Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 200. ... the plane is spreading pesticide. ... DDT was the first modern pesticide and is arguably the most well known organic pesticide. ... Labelling transformers containing PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of organic compounds with 1 to 10 chlorine atoms are attached to biphenyl and a general structure of C12H10-xClx. ... Tuberculosis (commonly shortened to TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (Miliary tuberculosis), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain, commonly caused by a viral infection. ... Poliomyelitis (polio), or infantile paralysis, is a viral paralytic disease. ... Cholera (also called Asiatic cholera) is an infectious disease, caused by bacteria that are typically ingested by drinking water that is contaminated by improper sanitation, or by eating improperly cooked fish, especially shellfish. ... Hepatitis is a gastroenterological disease, featuring inflammation of the liver. ... This is about the disease typhoid fever. ... This article is about the insect; for the WWII aircraft see De Havilland Mosquito. ... Categories: Stub | U.S. Dept. ...

See also

• United States-Mexico border

The international border between Mexico and the United States runs a total of 3,141 km (1,951 miles) from San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Baja California, in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in the east. ...

External links

• State Water resources Control Board
• Calexico New River Committee