U.S. Department of the Interior Fact Sheet 2008–3079 

U.S. Geological Survey September 2008 

Degree of 

health risk 

Classification 

level Criteria 

High Red At least one of the following applies: 

1. Either all or some lots have inadequate wastewater disposal (cesspools) 

2. All lots do not have potable water supply 

3. Not platted 

Medium Yellow Platted colonias with a potable water supply and adequate wastewater disposal, and at least 

one of the following applies: 

1. Either all or some lots lack solid waste disposal (trash collection) 

2. Not all roads are paved 

3. Not all roads are passable in all weather conditions 

4. Floods occur during precipitation 

 Low Green All of the following apply to all lots: 

1. Platted 

2. Have potable water supply 

3. Have adequate wastewater disposal 

4. Have solid waste disposal 

5. All roads are paved 

6. All roads are passable in all weather conditions 

7. Does not flood during precipitation 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHIPS: Monitoring Colonias Along the United States-


Mexico Border in Texas 

Colonias, which are unincorporated border settlements in 

the United States, have emerged in rural areas without the 

governance and services normally provided by local government. The expansion of colonias in the United States-Mexico 

border region can be traced to the rapid growth associated 

with the Mexican Border Industrial Program during the 1960s. 

This rapid population growth created a lack of affordable 

housing, causing new migrants in the United States to purchase rural homestead lots through a contract-for-deed 

program from land developers. Because of the need to 

keep prices affordable and the absence of effective land-use 

controls, these homesteads expanded into rural subdivisions, 

commonly called colonias, without proper infrastructure. 

Colonias have been identified in the four U.S. border states, 

with Texas having designated the majority, which numbered 

over 1,400 colonias in 2001. Because the region is binationally 

interconnected economically, politically, and socially, the phenomenon of colonias in the United States is a transborder 

issue. 

Because colonias are dynamic in nature and not uniquely 

represented within the census geography, an explicit long-term 

working database is needed to monitor progress, set infrastructure priorities, and measure quality-of-life indicators 

Table 1. Classification criteria for colonias. 

within the colonias. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 

in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and 

Urban Development, Office of the Texas Attorney General, 

Office of the Secretary of State, and Texas Water Development Board, developed the Colonia Health, Infrastructure, 

and Platting Status (CHIPS) tool. CHIPS is a relational database that contains the current infrastructure (water, wastewater, roads), platting, and health care information for 

colonias in the six Texas counties with the highest number 

of colonias. These counties are Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo, 

Maverick, Star, and Webb. The powerful CHIPS report 

generator ranks each colonia based on its level of infrastructure development in relation to its health risk. To help cities 

along the United States-Mexico border manage issues related 

to colonias growth, CHIPS is publicly available through the 

USGS U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative 

website 

http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov/datalayers.html 

under the selection category of “Places (Names)” 

The criteria for the health classification are based on the status 

of their infrastructure as identified by the Texas Senate Bill 

827 Workgroup (table 1). 
Figure 1. Distribution of colonias by color classification associated with health risk for the six counties 

contained in the Colonia Health, Infrastructure, and Platting Status (CHIPS) tool. 
Figure 2. Distribution of green, yellow, and red colonias within Cameron County. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the passing of Texas Senate Bill 827 in 2005, the State 

was mandated to create a colonia identification system and 

to track the progress of State-funded colonia improvement 

projects. This workgroup effort was spearheaded by the 

Office of the Texas Secretary of State Colonias Initiative, 

with collaboration from various State agencies and Secretary 

of State colonias ombudsmen. The existing Texas Water 

Development Board colonia identification system based on a 

unique eight-digit code was adopted. To track the progress of 

State-Funded projects, the Senate Bill 827 Workgroup created 

a set of infrastructure, demographic, and health-related criteria 

for the ombudsmen to collect in the six counties. These criteria 

were grouped into five sections (identification, platting, infrastructure, access to and information about health, and financial 

availability) that aided in classifying colonias by the degree of 

health hazard that they pose, as well as track the overall progress of State-funded projects that have benefited colonias 

within 62 miles of the border. The ombudsmen collected 

data from a variety of sources, including site visits, utility 

companies, county appraisal districts, and the Office of the 

Attorney General of Texas. 

The classification criteria created by the Senate Bill 827 

Workgroup served as a template for the CHIPS database 

schema. CHIPS uses a relational database to house the 

colonias data, which provides many benefits. Date entry rules 

and drop-down menus facilitate data entry within a graphical 

user interface for rapid data entry, data integrity, and quality 

control. The data are stored in a format that is easily updated 

and capable of generating custom reports rapidly. Based on 

the health classification criteria as determined by the Senate 

Bill 827 Workgroup, CHIPS classifies the colonias at three 

levels of health risk: high, medium, and low. As new data are 

entered, CHIPS can update the color classification of every 

colonia with a click of a button. CHIPS has a custom report 

generator that allows users with little or no knowledge of 

database queries to extract information with ease. The report 

generator is flexible and its output can be tailored to be either 

broad or specific. For example, a congressman could use 

CHIPS to list colonias with wastewater issues in a specific 

county, whereas a health researcher could list all colonias 

without clinical access. 

The color classification of the colonias, which is based on 

health and infrastructure criteria provided by the Senate Bill 

827 Workgroup, is fully automated by CHIPS. CHIPS 

determines which colonias are red, yellow or green by evaluating the colonia data populated by the ombudsmen. The results 

of this classification display the distribution of the colors 

among the counties included in CHIPS (fig. 1). Of the 1,786 

colonias identified in CHIPS, 36 percent are classified as 

green: platted, with adequate water services, adequate wastewater disposal, adequate solid waste disposal, paved roads 

that are passable in all weather conditions, and adequate 

drainage. The percentage of colonias classified as green 

is higher than the percentage of colonias identified as red 

(24.2 percent) or yellow (22.5 percent), but still less than 

the combined percentage of red and yellow colonias (46.7 

percent). The report generator of CHIPS allows a quick comparison of the distribution of colonias between counties. For 

example, 10 percent of the total number of colonias are 

located in Cameron County, but Cameron County has 14.5 

percent of the total number of green colonias. On the other 

hand, Maverick County has 4.1 percent of the total number 

of colonias but only 2.3 percent of the total number of green 

colonias. The results generated by CHIPS highlight where 

funds for colonia projects might be needed. In addition to the 

spatial distribution of the colonias, the maps also display the 

numerical distribution of the green, yellow, and red colonias 

in a locational context (fig. 2). The CHIPS tool has been used 

to identify areas of high health risk and areas needing transportation assistance during a disaster, as well as to grant 

estimates for infrastructure improvements. 

Texas legislation indicates a strong need to track infrastructure, health, and quality-of-life indicators for colonia residents. 

This tracking system needs to measure performance of financial expenditures against actual improvements and provide a 

method to determine future priorities. CHIPS provides an 

excellent tool for determining infrastructure priorities to direct 

future funding. The output reports provide the information 

needed for planning and funding purposes. The maps and 

graphs created from the CHIPS database provide an intuitive 

manner to compare the distribution of red, yellow, and green 

colonias between counties, as well as within counties. The 

statewide colonias eight-digit code identity system provides a 

method to link other State agency databases to each individual 

colonia. Thus other agencies can maintain their own working 

database and link the information to CHIPS as needed for 

reporting purposes. 

The USGS Open-File Report, “CHIPS: A New Way to 

Monitor Colonias Along the United States-Mexico Border” 

has additional information on the CHIPS database, report 

generator, and maps. It is available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ 

of/2007/1230/ 

For more information, please contact: 

Jean Parcher, 

jwparcher@usgs.gov 

U.S. Geological Survey 

8027 Exchange Dr. 

Austin, TX, 78754 

(512) 927–3523 

U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative 

The colonias data can be viewed within a geographic context 

from the USGS U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health 

Initiative (BEHI) at http://borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov. The BEHI 

describes, documents, and depicts environmental quality along 

the U.S.-Mexico border through integration of U.S. and 

Mexican datasets. This site includes an Internet Map Service, 

data download page, current status maps of data holdings, and 

documented methodology for harmonizing scientific datasets 

at various scales across international borders. 

Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes 

only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.