IV Press - Selection for river committee to end soon

Silvio Panta
Staff Writer
 

CALEXICO — The selec­tion process for a 15­member advisory com­mittee that would develop a plan to deal with the environmental problems posed by the New River could end by next week, an official said Thursday.

Ricardo Martinez, deputy secretary for bor­der affairs of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said committee members would be culled from three lists of a cross sec­tion of people.

There are about 12 to 20 names on each of the lists and the aim is to have the body come up with “a strategic plan” to guide the restoration of the New River on both sides of the border, Martinez said.

Scores of Imperial Valley residents and state officials attended an informal meeting Feb. 9 in Calexico where the names of potential committee members were collected.

On Tuesday, members of the California-Mexico Border Relations Council delegated authority to Martinez and his staff to have members of the advi­sory committee picked by “end of the (next) week,” Martinez said.

“We’re acting on this very, very quickly,” he said.

Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez, D­Coachella, who has cham­pioned state involvement in the cleanup of the New River, sponsored a bill, AB 1079, that appointed the border relations council to oversee and plan an effort aimed at restoring the river. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed one of three bills that included AB 1079 in October. Roughly $800,000 in state funds was added in federal matching funds for the cleanup project.

Known for its dense concentration of pollu­tants, the New River is reputed to have bacteria levels so high that it is believed to carry pathogens that can cause tuberculosis, cholera and other illnesses.

Part of what officials are trying to do is have members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state’s Regional Water Quality Board sit on the committee, Miguel Figueroa, executive direc­tor of the Calexico New River Committee, said.

Their combined “years of expertise” would be helpful in the clean-up effort of the New River, Figueroa said.

>> Staff Writer Silvio J. Panta can be reached at 760-337-3442 or at spanta@ivpressonline.com