By Kent Paterson
If you rely on El Paso online media for your news, you might have missed one of the biggest stories in the Sun City during the last couple of days. On Tuesday, April 22, the Trump administration suddenly replaced Maria-Elena Giner as head of the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). Headquartered in El Paso, the U.S. section of the binational agency is responsible for maintaining boundary demarcations, rehabilitating Rio Grande levees and applying the 1906 and 1944 water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, among other “little” tasks.
The 1906 and 1944 agreements, as well as numerous subsequent amendments (called Minutes in diplomatic parlance) to the 1944 treaty, allocate and manage the Rio Grande, Colorado River and Tijuana River. Former Commissioner Giner has been very busy.
At the time of her dismissal, Giner, the second woman to serve as IBWC commissioner, was deeply involved in the bilateral negotiations to resolve a long-running conflict over Mexican water deliveries to Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley as well as the ecocide along the Tijuana River and southern San Diego County coast stemming from the ongoing dumping of huge volumes of sewage.
Health and environmental experts rate the contamination as one of the worst-if not the worst-public health crises in the nation today. Oh, and Giner had a voice in talks over a new agreement to somehow manage the shrinking Colorado River that supplies about 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico.
Not surprisingly, then, Giner’s ouster was quickly reported in Mexico and across the Southwest only hours after the news broke. Paso del Norte media, however, were decidedly behind the curve. Ho, ho hum.
Giner was replaced by William “Chad” McIntosh, a former Ford Motor Co. executive and ex-Environmental Protection Agency official from the first Trump administration. He rejoined the EPA in January, most recently serving as acting deputy administrator of the federal agency. As of mid-day, April 23, the IBWC had not posted a statement about the leadership change on its website.