Desert Hygiene
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 20:06
Along the border, it's hard to find an actual immigrant walking the trail.
What can be found is the trail of trash left behind by these men, women 
and children crossing into the United States from Mexico. Apart from from the social issues of immigration, there is also its effect on the surrounding environment.
Every migrant starts with supplies they hope will be enough to last them accross the border trek and into the U.S.
A backpack or trashbag carries everything they'll need, including extra clothes, food and water.
"I was at a cleanup recently in the Ironwood Forest National Monument and we found plenty of food containers, water bottles and clothing items," said Dennis Godfrey a public affairs specialist for the Arizona Bureau of Land Management. "Sometimes we also find abandoned bicycles and even cars."
The paths the migrants take change depending on Border Patrol presence and the presence of American citizens. Humane Borders, an organization that sets up water stations in the desert for migrants, follows the trails of trash to find the best place to provide water.
"They leave a lot of garbage," said Gene Buell, a volunteer with Humane Borders. "Things they've started out with, but find that they just can't carry. In the begininng, Humane Borders looked for garbage. Where there was garbage, we tried to put water barrels."
The piles of trash can become large and hard to manage, so in January of 2011 the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) teamed up with state and federal agencies to create a website dedicated to the trash on the border. According to the site, a person crossing the border will leave six to eight pounds of trash on their journey. The site encourages volunteers to go out and help clean up the trash left in the desert.
"A lot of these plastic bottles are what we call number one plastics," said Mark Shaffer, communications director for ADEQ. "That means they have some oil in them and so when they begin to degrade, that oil leaks into the ground and causes problems for our underground water supply."
On top of the dangerous effects the trash has on the environmentt, it also leaves the area visually unappealing.
"A couple of years ago up in the mountains of Sierra Vista we found a spot where the smugglers hold the migrants until they can trasport them down the mountain," said Shaffer. "There was a trash pile about the size of a football field. We pulled out about 5000 backpacks and in some spots the trash was about three feet deep."
Some popular migrant trails run through places like the Ironwood Forest National Monument, leaving the area "defaced and defiled," according to Dennis Godfrey.
"These are places designed for people to enjoy the natural experience," he said. "Now we've lost that entirely."
To go to the next page click here.
To go to a list of other reports about trash along the border click here.
Written by Matt Lechuga You are reading Desert Hygiene articles
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