The state of Texas is attempting to build a nuclear waste dump in the Hudspeth County community of Sierra Blanca, located just sixteen miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The proposed dump would house radioactive waste from Vermont and Maine and potentially other states. For the past six years, the residents of Sierra Blanca, together with environmental and social justice activists from throughout Texas, have fought the nuclear industry, Governor George W. Bush, and others who support the dump.

Despite the fact that it is the size of Connecticut, Hudspeth County has only 3,500 residents and only 1,200 registered voters. About two-thirds of Sierra Blanca's population is of Mexican origin. Many residents have farmed or ranched in the area for generations. It is also a relatively poor town: forty percent of the population lives in poverty.

Sierra Blancans have little access to and influence upon the political and legal structure of Texas and have become prime targets for toxic and radioactive waste. The town is already home to one of the largest sewage dumps on earth, receiving 300 tons of sewage each day from New York City. In addition to the nuclear dump, residents are fighting two more sewage dumps and an incinerator.

In spite of fears of job loss and economic backlash, Sierra Blancans have launched a forceful campaign of resistance. Residents formed Save Sierra Blanca in 1992 to organize and fight against the nuclear dump and other environmental catastrophes that outsiders wanted to stick in their neighborhood. Since that time, Sierra Blancans have signed petitions, staged protests in Sierra Blanca and around Texas, lobbied their state and federal representatives, and worked closely with other environmental and social justice groups from nearby counties and throughout the state. A group of local activists also went to Washington D.C. to fight against a compact that would allow waste to be shipped in from outside Texas. "This is going to be buried in our back yard," said María Mendez, who lives fifteen miles from the proposed site. "It should stay where they created it."

One of the main allies of Save Sierra Blanca is the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund (SBLDF), a non-profit organization specifically founded in 1994 to stop the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) from issuing a license for the dump. SBDLF, whose board consists of community members from Sierra Blanca, Allamore, Austin, El Paso and elsewhere in Texas, has provided active support to the residents of Sierra Blanca through legal and grassroots political work.

Fortunately, the efforts of Save Sierra Blanca, the SBLDF and others have not fallen on deaf ears. As of August 1997, twenty counties and ten cities in Texas had passed resolutions against the dump. In addition, the states of Coahuila and Chihuahua in Mexico and the Mexican National Congress passed measures against the bill, forcing President Zedillo to make a formal complaint to the U.S. State Department. The dump's proximity to the border violates the 1983 La Paz Agreement signed by the U.S. and Mexico, which prohibits environmental degradation within sixty miles of international borders.

Currently, Sierra Blanca activists are awaiting the results of public hearings held over the past few months in Sierra Blanca, El Paso and Austin. Sierra Blancans were present at the hearings every day, protesting loudly, holding rallies and marches, and even staging a zany circus parade to mock the unjust hearing process.

Judges presiding over the hearings will make their recommendations to the TNRCC commissioners, who will decide in early summer whether to grant the license. Then it is up to the state legislature to fund the project, with a decision expected in January 1999. Sierra Blanca's friends and residents will be there every step of the way, letting their voices be heard. "We will not stop fighting," SBLDF Board Member Bill Addington explained, "until we either die or have justice."
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For more information or to lend support to the residents of Sierra Blanca, contact the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund, P.O. Box 18087, Austin, TX 78790; 512-447-8906; e-mail: heart@igc.apc.org; website: www.compassionate.org/sbldf/ Alex Schafran is NNIRR's population and environment intern. He also assists with the preparation of Central American asylum cases at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant in Berkeley, California.