International Environmental and Energy Challenges in Latin America

In Latin America, as in other regions of the world, one of the great challenges for the 21st century will be to better manage our natural resources whether it's oil and gas reserves, water, or biodiversity. The legacy environmental problems created in the 20th century require our combined attention to define and implement economically viable solutions. Mexico and the U.S. are exploring oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and are striving to define a strategy that will respect the environment as well as exploit badly needed energy reserves. This shared regional resource is the subject of unprecedented regional collaboration to better understand the dynamics of the ecosystem and how we can manage this resource for the benefit of our increasingly interdependent energy systems, fisheries, and agricultural industries.

Water has also emerged as a potentially conflictive issue on the shared border between the U.S. and Mexico. How do we ensure equitable use of a common resource, especially in times of draught? The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have funded several programs to address pending crises in water management throughout Latin America. The lessons we learn on managing our water resources can be applied not only to Mexico City but also to the similar problems found in such cities as Sao Paulo and Los Angeles as well. These are challenges faced not just by Latin America, but by all of us as Americans. We are discovering that solutions to many of our energy and environmental problems require regional collaborations. Through our alliance with the Instituto Mexican del Petróleo (IMP) in Mexico and with our clients in the U.S., Battelle is positioned to play an ever-increasing and significant role in defining solutions to these common problems. Battelle and the IMP have helped PEMEX identify risks associated with legacy problems from oil and gas production in the southern region of Mexico and in the Gulf. We have also worked with the city of Mexico to better understand the dynamics of the aquifer that is under increasing stress from urban development. Our efforts in 2003 and 2004 will focus on further work in the Sonda de Campeche and new regions for exploration and production, cleaning up legacy contamination at several sites, and projecting ourselves into the water market in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

For further information, please contact Mr. Rick Chidester at (206) 528-3230, chidesterr@battelle.org.