Border cleanup campaign impacts neighborhoods

A border-area trash cleanup campaign in the Yuma area isn't just about picking up discarded tires and other trash.

It also involves spreading the word about not littering.

No Contamine/Don't Trash the Border, a bilateral effort headed up by the Somerton-based Regional Centers of Border Health, has gathered nearly 177 tons of trash at illegal dump sites in Yuma County and in neighboring Sonora, Mexico, in recent months, said Amanda Aguirre, CEO of the RCBH, in a recent report to the Somerton City Council about the campaign's efforts.

But the program also has gone into the classroom, teaching a total of about 5,000 schoolchildren in Yuma County and another 5,000 in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., about the importance of recycling, Aguirre said.

The campaign, funded in part by a $50,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, most recently went to El Golfo de Santa Clara, Son., where 168 volunteers collected 14 tons of trash, including 50 discarded tires, over a nearly 2-mile stretch of beach, she told Somerton council members.

Previously, in September, it collected 91.5 tons of trash, including discarded concrete and 400 old tires, in the Orange Grove subdivision in Somerton.

And last month, it collected nearly 46 tons of trash from an illegal dumping site on Cocopah tribal land near Avenue A and County 15-1/2 Street, she said.

In all, the campaign enlisted more than 300 volunteers to pick up 176.7 tons of litter from illegal dumps in scattered locations on both side of the border, said Aguirre. The collected tonnage included nearly 600 old tires that had been discarded, she said.

"We are having an impact on the most impoverished neighborhoods in Yuma County and eradicating illegal trash sites," she told Somerton council members.

Aguirre, who represents the county as the state senator, said the campaign has also enlisted the support of municipal governments and other public agencies on both sides of the border.