; (6) in 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency provided funds to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board to monitor and document the water quality at the international boundary on a monthly basis; (7) in the late 1990s, the United States and Mexico spent $100 million (45 percent paid by Mexico and 55 percent paid by the United States) to build the Las Arenitas and Zaragoza Wastewater Treatment plants, and untreated New River water passing through four microbial treatment cells at Las Arenitas was then chlorinated and fed into a re-forestation project along the desiccated Rio Hardy which stretches to the Sea of Cortez; (8) a 10-year effort by community groups, lawyers, regulatory agencies, and politicians addressed the problem at the source by federally funding a new sewage treatment plant in Mexicali and developing a site plan for the river on the United States side; (9) in 2009, the State of California required the California-Mexico Border Relations Council to create a strategic plan to study, monitor, remediate, and enhance the New River’s water quality to protect human health and develop a river parkway suitable for public use; (10) in 2012, the California-Mexico Border Relations Council approved the strategic plan for the New River Improvement Project prepared by the New River Improvement Project Technical Advisory Committee; (11) in 2016, the New River Improvement Project Technical Advisory Committee revised the recommended infrastructure of the New River Improvement Project, and the State of California appropriated $1.4 million to provide grants or contracts to implement the necessary planning, design, environmental review, and permitting work; (12) the revised New River Improvement Project includes the installation of a large trash screen, a conveyance system, aeration devices, a new pump station and managed wetlands