In a quiet Capitol Hill office last week, the decades-long stench of the New River finally met a renewed sense of federal urgency. Rep. Raul Ruiz said in a statement he sat down with International Boundary and Water Commission Commissioner Chad McIntosh and Deputy Commissioner Tony Frye. Their focus was a waterway that has long ceased to be just an environmental eye-sore, hardening instead into a full-blown public health crisis for Imperial County. The meeting followed a May 11 federal roundtable in Calexico, California, where EPA officials, local leaders, and exhausted residents laid bare the realities of living near what is widely considered one of the most polluted rivers in North America.