Fronteras

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Mexico has signed a deal to build a 625-mile long natural gas pipeline leading up to the U.S. border. But the project is meeting resistance on the U.S. side.

The pipeline would start west of Tucson and run about 60 miles south to meet up with the project in Sonora in Sasabe. Mexico signed an agreement with Mitsui, a Japanese corporation.

That half of the project will cost nearly $460 million. The pipeline would run up from the Sea of Cortez and power cities throughout northern Sonora and up to the border.

But for the gas to cross the border, the project must meet environmental standards in Arizona. A local conservation group wants Kinder Morgan to reroute the pipeline east of a major wildlife area and the ranch lands it proposed going through.

“And given that there’s already a pipeline in place, we feel it’s not out of the question to reroute in that direction,” said Sarah King of the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance.

That route would place the pipeline in the Santa Cruz Valley where an existing pipeline already sits.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors and the U.S. Border Patrol in Tucson also support the alternate route. A new comment period for the proposed route modifications begins Monday.