"They are killing us little by little": Latina mothers in a Texas border city fight against air pollution

By Albinson Linares, Isa Gutierrez, Carlos Perez-Beltran and Jackie Montalvo -

EL PASO, Texas – Nallely Melendez's voice breaks when she recalls all the times she had to rush to the hospital with her son Ethan because, since he was 6 months old, he started having trouble breathing.

"It was the first time that I dealt with a child who was this bad. It's a terrible thing because, when they are coughing, you don't even know what to do," she says with anguish.

Melendez, a 34-year-old mother of three, says doctors only gave her a possible explanation for her son's breathing problems when she told them where she lived.

"It's not just the contamination. The apartments were in very bad condition," she explains.

This Latina was raising her family in Chamizal, a neighborhood located in South Central El Paso, Texas.

That area is on the border with Mexico and is home to nearly 8,000 people.

More than 96% of people in the community identify as Hispanic or Latino.

Due to the proximity of the Chamizal to the busy Interstate 10 highway, the international bridge and its constant traffic of heavy transport, a bus station, a recycling facility and an oil refinery, the neighbors assure that the contamination is one of the great problems they face on a daily basis.

The American Lung Association ranks El Paso as the 13th

, surpassing much larger cities like New York and Dallas.

Ozone is better known as smog and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is associated with many health problems such as

.

Nallely Melendez and her children in El Paso, Texas.

"They have to take care of our children because they are the future, they are the next generation," she said.

Carlos Perez-Beltran

Melendez and locals say air pollution is worse in Chamizal than in the rest of El Paso.

In fact, her mother also lived in her house and she developed respiratory problems and a bad cough.

"I say that there has to be a solution, they have to take care of our children because they are the future, it is the next generation and

," says Meléndez while explaining that, despite the fact that you've moved out of that area, your child still has to use inhalers.

Hilda Villegas, 43, a neighborhood community leader, says the area has been treated "like a dump."

"It's time for us to see what is happening and call on these entities to do something about it," says Villegas, who also raises three of her four children in Chamizal.

Both mothers are part of a community organization called Familias Unidas del Chamizal.

Like much of the neighborhood, the organization is made up mostly of single mothers.

"

. So Familias Unidas represents an aid or a possibility to express their experiences and injustices, without fearing that they will put themselves in danger," says Villegas.

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El Chamizal, located along the US-Mexico border, has a long history of displacement and border conflict.

This neighborhood is one of the oldest in El Paso and was one of the first places where Anglo settlers and Mexican and Mexican-American residents claimed title to the property.

Due to these disputes, and the changing course of the Rio Grande, the Chamizal was subject to international border negotiations that lasted for decades and culminated, in October 1967, in the return to Mexico of 366 acres.

But, for activists like Villegas, the history of the neighborhood is marked by inequality and racism.

"Children are vulnerable. They depend on their mothers, their fathers to protect them, but

(...) The community represents a protection, a defense for immigrant families on this side who are residents, naturalized citizens or people who are in the legalization process," says Villegas.

A Latino neighborhood sues the EPA

In 2018, Familias Unidas del Chamizal sued the US Environmental Protection Agency along with a coalition of other environmental and community groups.

"There is a trend toward worsening ozone quality over the last five or six years, after a period of steady improvements," said David Baake, a lawyer for the association who argues that rising temperatures, forest fires and "the explosion in oil and gas production" in the Permian Basin are the agents responsible for the decline in air quality in the Chamizal.

"We want them to live up to what the scientific studies show," the EPA's Baake said, describing the lawsuit as a classic David versus Goliath story.

El Chamizal is at a distance of 4.5 miles, by car, from the Córdova International Bridge of the Americas, a dynamic land port that, only in 2018, registered the crossing of 270,846 trucks.

Cars and trucks are the largest contributors to air pollution in El Paso, where long lines of vehicles traversing the US-Mexico border often remain static for hours.

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However, exhaust pipes are always running and emit pollutants that worsen air quality such as nitrogen oxides (which are precursors to ozone) and particulate matter that, according to the EPA, can cause serious medical problems.

The lawsuit contains the testimonies of many residents who explain the conditions they have suffered due to contamination in the area, as is the case of María Ferrer, who lives on Paisano Drive, in front of the Chamizal National Monument.

Two of Ferrer's three children have respiratory and allergic problems so serious that their noses have bled, so her family avoids spending time outside their home.

The legal document warns that

and cites a 2014 study that found that 17% of El Paso children have asthma and more than half suffer from allergies.

Additionally, children who are poor and have a caregiver who only speaks Spanish are more likely to go to expensive emergency rooms or hospitals, without access to preventive care.

Research from the University of Texas at El Paso found in 2016 that elementary schools in El Paso with more Hispanic students had higher exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution.

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The community demanded that the EPA reassess the air quality in El Paso and enforce the Clean Air Act that was enacted to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants to address public health and welfare risks. entail.

In 2020, the court agreed with the people of Chamizal.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA was required to "issue revised designations" not only in El Paso County, but also in 15 other counties in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri and Colorado. .

Traffic at the border crossing between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, United States.Carlos Perez-Beltran

In November 2021, the EPA officially designated the city as a marginal non-compliance area for ozone pollution last November.

That means all new sources of pollution in the area must be regulated.

"We hoped that with that designation, state, local and federal legal leaders would begin to take this issue seriously," Baake said.

But less than two months after the new designation, the Texas State Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) appealed it.

The state agency argued that nearby areas of Mexico are the main cause of the ozone levels in El Paso.

Baake and the Chamizal mothers say they are disappointed by the state agency's reaction.

But they were not surprised.

Every time we win a battle, something else always comes our way."

cemelli of aztlan

"They're spending taxpayer money on a meritless lawsuit, instead of spending taxpayer money on solutions," Baake said.

"Every time we win a battle, something else always comes our way," says Cemelli de Aztlan, 41, a member of Familias Unidas del Chamizal.

"I feel very outraged because these government agencies like the TCEQ, and other state entities,

," said Villegas, the community leader.

In a statement, the TCEQ said it uses "a multi-pronged approach to ensure chemicals in ambient air are not at levels that may cause health effects."

Marathon Petroleum Corp., which owns the nearby refinery, said in a statement that it has been reducing emissions since 2011 by as much as 35-70% for some chemicals and particulates.

"We continue to look for ways to reduce our environmental footprint," the company said.

Additionally, W. Silver Recycling, the company whose industrial waste recycling facility is located near the neighborhood elementary school, said in a statement that it transfers the materials to New Mexico for processing.

"Our company does not melt metals or apply any type of heat to our materials anywhere," said the recycler.

Both companies said they have roots in the community and support many local initiatives.

The American Lung Association classifies El Paso as the thirteenth city in the country with the worst rates of ozone pollution, in that respect it exceeds much larger cities such as New York and Dallas.Carlos Perez-Beltran

The TCEQ also stated that they have been monitoring the air in the neighborhood since 1988 and that there are no indications that the levels of toxic chemicals cause serious health consequences for children or adults.

However, members of Familias Unidas argue that the TCEQ air monitor does not accurately measure air quality in their community because it is located within the Chamizal National Monument, a 55-acre park.

"That's not where people live. That's literally a protected federal space," De Aztlan explains.

Baake says they will intervene to defend the EPA's designation in court, but anticipates it will be a long fight.

"The studies that have been done show that Texas has caused more pollution in El Paso than Mexico. We all know that there is a pollution problem in Mexico, it is true, but

", warns the lawyer.

For her part, Socorro Yesenia Anaya, director of ecology of Ciudad Juárez, assures that it is very difficult to determine the indications made by the TCEQ.

"Sometimes people and agencies make these statements without remembering that

that we must fight together, without attacking each other. At the end of the day, the air is one and we all breathe it, that knows no borders," explains the Mexican official in an interview.

"Things Can Change"

Meanwhile, the Chamizal legal process gives hope for a larger movement.

According to a report by the Clean Air Task Force, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Hispanic Medical Association, 1.81 million Latinos in the United States live less than half a mile from an oil and gas facility.

that exceeds levels the EPA considers to be of concern due to toxins emitted by oil and gas facilities.

“I think we are at a critical moment where things can change,” said Antonieta Cadiz, general director of Latino affairs for Climate Power, an independent organization that focuses on public support for important climate actions.

Cadiz credits minority community leaders across the country, such as members of Familias Unidas del Chamizal, for making environmental racism a topic of discussion at the federal level.

Hilda Villegas, a community leader from the El Chamizal neighborhood in El Paso, Texas.

She raises three of her four children. Carlos Perez-Beltran

"We have President Biden who is really committed to addressing environmental injustice," Cadiz said.

"You have

, which is actually a historic step. If it passes the Senate, it will be a huge victory when it comes to environmental justice."

For Cemelli de Aztlán, environmental justice would mean being able to live in "a community where children can breathe."

"Many parents who come to our organization tell us:

,' "says the community leader.

"The concern of these mothers is very valid," explained Dr. Jeanette Lara, who treats many Chamizal patients at a family health center located in New Mexico, 30 minutes north of El Paso.

"They come with COPD, which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They come with seasonal allergies, and rhinitis, which is inflammation of the nose. They also come with asthma, which is the youngest group [of patients]," says Lara.

After several years of frequent visits to the hospital, Meléndez's son was diagnosed with asthma when he turned 7.

"Every night she has to take a pill and every morning she has her asthma medicine

," Melendez explained, in her kitchen as her children got ready for school.

"We struggled to feed our children, to provide them with a roof over their heads, and now we are very concerned about their health," Villegas said.

Regardless of the result of their efforts, the Chamizal mothers will have to deal with some burdens that will never go away, according to Villegas.

"The effects of environmental pollution on children's health will last forever," he

concludes.