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A tanker trunk operator fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
A tanker trunk owned by contractor Leonel Aguilar fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
A tanker trunk operator fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
An employee with the Nogales, Sonora municipal water authority OOMAPAS watches as a 10,000-liter tanker fills up Wednesday at the border fence.
This hydrant on East International Street on the U.S. side of the border wall is one of two being used to send water to Nogales, Sonora.
This hydrant at the corner of Nelson and East International streets in Nogales, Ariz. is one of two being used to send water to Nogales, Sonora.
A hose carrying water from two hydrants in Nogales, Ariz. passes through the bollard border fence and into Mexico.
A tanker trunk operator fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
An employee with the Nogales, Sonora municipal water authority OOMAPAS watches as a 10,000-liter tanker fills up Wednesday at the border fence.
This hydrant on East International Street on the U.S. side of the border wall is one of two being used to send water to Nogales, Sonora.
A hose carrying water from two hydrants in Nogales, Ariz. passes through the bollard border fence and into Mexico.
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Wednesday morning, a succession of water tanker trucks known as “pipas” took turns pulling up under a large spigot on the Nogales, Sonora side of the border wall, a few steps east of the entrance to the Morley Avenue pedestrian crossing.
The trucks were of various vintages and sizes – two capable of holding 10,000 liters, another with a capacity of twice that much. But all had the same assignment: deliver water to neighborhoods where service has been cut off amid a seasonal shortage.
Leonel Aguilar, owner and driver of one of the 10,000-liter trucks, said he’s been loading up at the spot four or five times per day this week, then making deliveries to the homes of people desperate for water.
“Yes, they complain a lot about the water shortage,” Aguilar said as his assistant stood atop the tank, guiding the flow of water that originated from wells on the U.S. side of the border.
For the second year in a row, the City of Nogales, Ariz. is selling water to the municipal government of Nogales, Sonora to help it meet the needs of residents during the hottest and driest time of the year.
Juan Francisco Gim, mayor of Nogales, Sonora, was quoted this week in the newspaper El Diaro de Sonora as saying that approximately 60 neighborhoods had been without water, though 50 were expected to have their service resumed shortly. The other 10, he said, were being serviced by 25-30 water trucks that were reaching 1,500-1,700 customers per day with water from the spout at the border wall.
A tanker trunk owned by contractor Leonel Aguilar fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
The water comes from two metered hydrants along East International Street in Nogales, Ariz., that flows to a single hose snaking through a gap in the bollard fencing. Once on the Mexican side, the liquid passes through a valve controlled by a hand-turned T-bar, and up to the spigot that feeds the trucks.
A worker from the municipal water authority, known by the acronym OOMAPAS, who manned the valve and processed paperwork on Wednesday said he wasn’t sure how many truckloads were being filled each day. But he said the arrival of the vehicles was steady, from 7 a.m until 5 p.m.
Alejandro Barcenas, public works director for the City of Nogales, Ariz., called the arrangement an “emergency water supply” that lasts for a few weeks. He expected the cross-border service to continue until the monsoon rains arrive.
“That’s what happened last year. As soon as the rains started, they said, ‘OK, we’re going to close it off,’ and that was it,” he said.
Barcenas estimated that the city sold 10 acre feet of water to the government of Nogales, Sonora in 2021. He said state law limits the total sale to 23 acre feet. (One acre foot equals 325,851 gallons.)
This hydrant at the corner of Nelson and East International streets in Nogales, Ariz. is one of two being used to send water to Nogales, Sonora.
Barcenas referred questions about the rate charged for the water to the City Finance Department, which did not respond to e-mail or voicemail messages on Wednesday. But a year ago, Deputy City Manager John Kissinger said the rate was the same that the city was charging construction companies at the time: $4.46 per 1,000 gallons, as well as a monthly meter fee of $46.
Last month, Rudy Heredia of the city’s water department told the NI that municipal wells were continuing to pump large quantities of groundwater, thanks in large part to the Santa Cruz River’s aquifer.
“Right now we’re doing good,” Heredia said at the time, adding: “We’re even thinking about helping Nogales, Sonora again this year.”
In his remarks to El Diario de Sonora, Gim said the cost of the water purchased from Nogales, Ariz. was being borne by OOMAPAS, not the recipient families. Aguilar, the water tanker owner contracted by the city to make the deliveries, said he doesn’t collect any money as part of the deliveries.
“They don’t pay us,” he said. “They just bring us some documents, the (customer) signs them and we deliver the water.”
The water, he said, is pumped into a home’s “tinaco,” the ubiquitous black plastic tanks that sit on the roofs of residences and use gravity to feed the water fixtures of a home.
A tanker trunk operator fills up with water from Nogales, Ariz. on the south side of the border fence on Wednesday morning.
Barcenas described the water-selling arrangement with Nogales, Sonora in matter-of-fact terms. “We’re selling the water to the municipal government, and then they decide where and how they go about it,” he said.
But asked if it’s nice to know that the water is being used to help neighbors in need, he said; “Sure.”
“We have worked with Nogales, Sonora for many, many years and helped them as much as we can, legally, on emergencies and things like that,” he said, referencing a memorable episode in 2012 when the Nogales Fire Department used its 100-foot ladder truck to blast water over the border wall to fight a fire at a Nogales, Sonora hotel , just a few feet away from where the water trucks are now filling up.
“We try to work with them as much as we can,” Barcenas said.
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