YUMA — Mexico is reviving plans for a deep-water shipping port on the Baja California coast south of Ensenada — and the possibility that Yuma County could be on the route of a rail line that would serve the port.
When the project became public in 2007, it raised controversy in the Yuma area. Concerns were that it could disrupt area farming and roads and create pollution.
This week, Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transportation published new bidding specifications for the benefit of companies seeking to build and operate the port and the rail line that would move cargo shipped in from other nations.
The publication of the documents jump-started a project that had come to a halt as a result of the global economic downturn, and, the ministry said in a bulletin, "opens the possibility of adapting Punta Colonet to the current situation involving international markets, which have changed considering since (earlier) bidding in September 2008."
People are also reading…
The ministry's announcement resurrects one of the proposed routes that would bring the rail line up from Punta Colonet through the Ensenada area, then up through Baja's San Felipe, then east to San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, where it would turn and cross the border east of Yuma, said Manuel Baldenebro, mayor of San Luis Rio Colorado.
Baldenebro said the rail line passing through his city and neighboring Yuma County would bring to the area new industry that would tie into it.
Much of the controversy over the port in 2007 stemmed from the Union Pacific Railroad exploring a possible rail link through Yuma County to carry goods from the proposed megaport across the United States.
Union Pacific later announced it was abandoning its plans.
However, a Yuma organization formed to try to work out a compromise continues to monitor rail issues.
"We're still active," said Dave Mansheim, chairman of Arizona Common Sense, who added that he had heard reports the Mexican government was again trying to move forward with the port project.
"But at this time we don't feel we have anything concrete," he said of any possible rail. "We're waiting for more definitive information before commenting."
Jim Chessum, executive director of the Greater Yuma Port Authority, said he, too, was unaware of any renewed plans for a railroad to come through Yuma County to carry goods from Punta Colonet.
"We've not heard of any plans," he said. "I haven't heard anything about the rail coming back."'
Yuma County Supervisor Tony Reyes said the rebidding on the port project and accompanying rail line should be seen positively.
"The fact that the project is being reactivated is a positive sign that the economy is improving," he said. "I believe we should view it with an open and receptive mind."
Reyes conceded prior concerns prompted by the project.
"In the past, the problem was that they were talking about the tracks crossing through farmland," he said. "But after the project changed with the proposal that the line cross to the east, there were some questions and the same concerns that we saw with the (area service) highway, concerning intersections. But I believe we have to make bolder decisions than we have in the past and think more about the benefits."
Reyes said a rail-line route through Yuma County hasn't been considered in depth other than "many opportunities would come with the project, including tying it into the (planned oil) refinery project (in the east county), the transport of oil, and with industry that would develop here. Keeping an open mind will be the only way to progress."
The Ministry of Communications and Transportation said that so far four companies are interested in bidding to develop the port and operate it. Prospective bidders have until Nov. 3 to submit formal interest in bidding on the project.
