Since the mid-1990s officials at all levels of government in the United States and Mexico have cooperated formally in assessing and addressing the air quality challenges in this shared air basin. This formal cooperation takes place through the Joint Advisory Committee for the Improvement of Air Quality in the Paso del Norte (usually called the Joint Advisory Committee or JAC).

 

The JAC, started in 1996, is a binational group created under the La Paz agreement signed by the U.S. and Mexico, and in November of 2019 they will celebrate their 76th meeting. JAC is charged with the development and recommendation of air quality improvement initiatives to the Air Work Group  which was established under the "Agreement Between the United States of America and the United Mexican States on the Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area." The JAC is the only body of its kind along the U.S.-Mexico border, and is considered a model for binational cooperation at the local/regional level. It is composed of 22 members – half from Mexico and half from the United States - including local, state, and federal government officials, as well as representatives of the public, Universities, private industry, and non-governmental organizations.