President Joe Biden, following pressure to declare a state of emergency on the Tijuana sewage crisis, has committed an additional $310 million to fix and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.
U.S. Rep. Scott Peters in a statement said that Biden had included the money in an emergency supplemental funding request for fiscal year 2024.
San Diegans have called on the federal government to put an end to this crisis for years…the president has responded to our pleas for help.”
-U.S. Rep. Scott Peters.
“San Diegans have called on the federal government to put an end to this crisis for years. Today, thanks to their overwhelming advocacy and dedicated work from elected officials at every level of government, the president has responded to our pleas for help,” Peters said on Oct. 25. “Make no mistake, this is not a ‘mission accomplished’ moment.”
Peters, a Democrat whose district includes Coronado and coastal San Diego, noted that both chambers of Congress will have to approve the funding.
Surfrider Foundation adding pressure
Meanwhile, the Surfrider Foundation, an influential environmental group, has submitted 3,200 petition signatures from San Diego County residents calling for an emergency declaration at the state and federal level to address what it calls a serious public health and environmental justice crisis that brings a constant state of danger for communities at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A federal “state of emergency” would fast-track funding and construction projects and bypass typical layers of governmental reviews.
The pledged additional funding from Biden and petition signatures are the latest moves to stop the largely unmitigated flow of millions of gallons of sewage from Tijuana into the Pacific Ocean and onto the shores of Imperial Beach and Coronado.
The action comes after The Coronado News early this year wrote a five-part investigative series about the broken promises of U.S. and Mexican leaders to fix the public health crisis that has caused local residents, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Navy SEALS to become ill and hospitalized.
Correspondence continues
In the past months, Peters has worked to secure more funding from the Biden administration as the price tag has ballooned to roughly $1 billion to fix the aging wastewater treatment plant and to pay for other public works projects to stop the sewage flow.
With much ballyhoo, the United States and Mexico last summer announced they had agreed to spend $474 million, which was expected to solve the problem of capturing and treating wastewater from the growing metropolis of Tijuana. The U.S. would be paying $330 million.
Among the plans then was doubling the capacity at the treatment plant to handle at least 50 million gallons of raw sewage daily from Tijuana.
However, the plant has had numerous failures this year during heavy storms.
That prompted San Diego County congressional leaders, including Peters, in early October to request a detailed breakdown from the U.S. State Department about how the treatment plant reached its current deterioration and to get a better understanding of what has become a public health crisis, according to the letter dated Oct. 6.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom also has made requests to Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to expedite access to $300 million that had already been appropriated by Congress to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in early 2020 to start work on the plant and other projects.
Newsom underlined the importance of rehabilitation and expansion of the overtaxed treatment plant in San Ysidro in addition to asking for more federal funds. However, the letter made no mention of a state of emergency.
During a California Coastal Commission meeting in August, several South Bay, Imperial Beach, and Coronado residents voiced support to continue to urge Newsom to issue a state of emergency, which they said would accelerate federal funding.
Governor says emergency must be federal
But in early October, Newsom’s office told California Coastal Commission Executive Director Kate Huckelbridge why the governor had stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.
“A state proclamation of emergency cannot accelerate federal work needed on this federal facility that is in a federally-controlled area on an international border,” Newsom’s Legal Affairs Secretary David Sapp wrote on Oct. 10. “A state proclamation of emergency is not necessary to trigger a federal emergency declaration to support the federal response to this crisis.”
Still, that same day, the Surfrider Foundation submitted its petition to Newsom and Biden calling for an emergency declaration to address the public health and environmental justice crisis at our border, according to a press release.
Divided opinion, state of emergency
“We appreciate Gov. Newsom shining a light on this issue, but that alone is not enough. We are desperate for more – more legislative solutions and more work on the ground to finally fix these problems and protect our communities,” said Surfrider Foundation Clean Border Water Now Lead Volunteer Bethany Case, an Imperial Beach Resident.
Sara Davidson, another Surfrider official, said “Biden has the authority to declare an emergency whenever he deems public health and safety in his jurisdictions to be threatened.”
It’s affecting every aspect of community life and well-being. If ever there was a public health and environmental justice emergency, this would be it.”
-Sara Davidson, a Surfrider official.
She noted the pollution is “in the air, it’s in their homes, it’s affecting every aspect of community life and well-being. If ever there was a public health and environmental justice emergency, this would be it.”
Imperial Beach resident Leon Benham, who has followed this issue since 2014, doesn’t believe a federal state of emergency declaration is needed.
“The emergency declaration is a backwards approach and resembles a shoot, ready, aim philosophy pushed by large special interests from Mexico which are put ahead of California citizens who live along the coastal border,” he told The Coronado News.
Working with Mexico
Meanwhile, San Diego County Supervisor Chairwoman Nora Vargas and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre on Oct. 20 wrote to Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, thanking him for his environmental work.
The letter cited local efforts to help mitigate the transboundary sewage crisis, including San Diego County declaring a state of emergency and ongoing efforts to get the American government on board with a federal declaration.
Vargas and Aguirre also asked López Obrador to continue to make rehabilitation efforts of the sewage plant at Tijuana’s Punta Bandera a priority, writing it would result in significant benefits to both sides of the border.
“Agradecemos profundamente el compromiso que se le ha otorgado a las comunidades fronterizas y a cuidar el medio ambiente y respetuosamente solicitamos que Punta Bandera siga siendo prioridad,” reads the letter in Spanish. “Reemplazar esta instalación tiene el potencial de reducir significativamente el flujo de aguas residuales y de mejorar la calidad del agua y el aire en ambos lados de la frontera.”
