Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs traveled to Mexico on Friday to sign an environmental cooperation agreement with Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo.
The new Arizona-Sonora Environmental Strategic Plan lays out dozens of shared environmental priorities dealing with air and water quality, waste management and wildlife preservation.
Hobbs visited Hermosillo, the Sonoran capital, to sign a memorandum of understanding alongside Durazo.
The signing signals both states’ commitment to implement the new plan to address issues affecting residents on both sides of the 390-mile border Arizona shares with Sonora, said Amanda Stone, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
“We absolutely can't solve these environmental issues without working cooperatively,” Stone said. “We do things in Arizona that impact the environment in Mexico, and Mexico does things that impact the environment here in Arizona. We absolutely have to work together.”
The plan’s priorities include reducing emissions, reductions in illegal trash dumping, and recovery and reintroduction of native species like the Sonoran pronghorn and the masked bobwhite quail.
The plan also calls for improved treatment of contaminated wastewater and improved management of local drinking and wastewater systems in Sonora. Just this year, malfunctioning wastewater plants in Nogales, Sonora, spilled untreated sewage into Arizona, according to the Nogales International.
Stone said the new agreement, which runs through 2027, builds on an earlier agreement signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey that was successful in helping the states obtain grant funding to address environmental issues and educate industries in Sonora about the impact of metal contamination in wastewater.
“We've been successful in working with a few of the industries in Mexico to get them to stop adding metals to their affluent so that it doesn't end up on the Arizona side of the border,” Stone said.
