Is the US-Mexico Border Prepared for Environmental Disaster?
The September 11 terrorist attacks sparked debate over the United States’ readiness to handle an attack involving weapons of mass destruction. In the days after the Twin Towers crumbled, concern was expressed about ocean ports and other border points of entry as possible avenues of assault. Ample discussion was devoted to weapons manufactured for the explicit purposes of killing people, but little was said about the toxic and hazardous materials that regularly crisscross the US-Mexico border region. In 2002, a new focus on border security inspired the governments of the United States and Mexico to sign a 22-point “smart border plan” that proposed facilitating the flow of goods and business people while deterring terrorism. The Bush-Fox plan did not specifically address commercially-used chemicals and other hazardous substances in the border region, but it did advocate employing “smart technologies” like radio frequency identification devices in trucks that could also be employed to mon
