TIJUANA, Mexico – Minutes south of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry is a university lab with researchers working on minute technology that may present changes and possible solutions for water reuse.
Inside the Chemistry Graduate and Research Center at the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana (ITT), one can find Electrochemistry, Nanotechnology and Environment Research Professor Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán alongside a group of postgraduate students.
Their mission: Use new technology to create clean water for a city of 2.2 million people overwhelmed with sewage failures that seep into the Pacific Ocean and affect the coastlines and economies of neighboring Imperial Beach and Coronado.
The Coronado News visited Oropeza in early November as part of its ongoing investigation into an international health crisis from the continual flow of raw sewage from Tijuana into the U.S., which has sickened locals, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Navy SEALs.
If you know what is in the water, you can help to improve its quality.”
-Professor Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán
“I marvel at the planet earth with its distribution and its resources,” Oropeza tells The Coronado News during an interview at her laboratory. “If you know what is in the water, you can help to improve its quality. Before saying the solution and that it is necessary to do this or that, it is necessary to know what condition the water has and not to mix it, which happens in the sewage.”
Distinguished academic
The 59-year-old has dedicated more than half of her life to dozens of published university projects and reports, and teaching new generations of scholars about the extended possibilities in the topic of water.
Her publications have placed her among the Mexican Republic’s special cohort of researchers since 1998. And she’s among a group of distinguished academics who are members of Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI), or the National System of Researchers, with significant contributions of research and teaching in the country.
Oropeza has also extended her academic research to work with local leaders.
In 2012, Oropeza partnered with governmental entities to help establish a research center in Tijuana formerly known as El Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en Electroquímica (CIDETEQ), Unidad Tijuana.
It linked the branches of investigation, academia, and the Electrochemistry industry in the Baja California Consortium for five years until 2017.
“What we taught in CIDETEQ is the organization of how to manage information, how to respect water quality regulations,” said Oropeza. “The work there consisted of setting up laboratories for water quality analysis…we had 17 laboratories.”
Partnerships with the state’s municipalities and companies like Hyundai and Mitsubishi came to a conclusion and all the research returned to the center’s headquarters in Querétaro, Mexico.
Oropeza said the greatest takeaway was that her students learned the importance of upholding water quality.
“Maybe it was not the right time,” said Oropeza. “More enthusiasm was missing in the government. …the people who were in charge of making decisions did not visualize the transcendence.”
Newfound urgency
Today, however, there appears to be an urgency among Mexican and U.S. officials to fix the roughly century-old sewage problem amid pressure from environmental groups and politicians.
The countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for construction projects on both sides of the border that include rehabilitating the strained 75-acre South Bay International Wastewater Treatment plant in San Ysidro.
And Oropeza believes all of her prior work moved “the hearts of the young people,” a majority of postgraduate students during those years who now work professionally in the work of improving water quality.
“Our goal, [at ITT has been] to foster a laboratory that would help people, companies and students to prepare themselves in the subject of water quality.”
Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán
“Water is a universal subject,” says Oropeza, who works to continue this impact. “Our goal, [at ITT has been] to foster a laboratory that would help people, companies and students to prepare themselves in the subject of water quality.”
Possible advantages of nanotechnology
These days, Oropeza’s lab makes magnetic nanoparticles with different properties that focus on the improvement of water quality.
She says the pioneering research is focused on creating devices that can help with sewage treatment before it’s put into the Tijuana River.
“Industrial processes are not going to stop, neither is population growth. So, the goal is to help them with information on what alternatives they can use so that their water does not leave dirty as it makes it way out,” said Oropeza.
She adds that the “origin” of the Tijuana River pollution is from overgrowth and “disorganization from the city.”
The Mexico City native and current San Diego resident also takes her role as a binational stakeholder seriously when it comes to the decades-long sewage crisis affecting both sides of the border, which she considers a titanic challenge.
For this reason, Oropeza believes the US-Mexico Minute 328 Agreement – a deal between the two countries that’s expected to reduce transboundary sewage from Tijuana into the U.S. – fails to consider fundamental social contexts that make it “disadvantaged and out of touch with reality.”
From the Tijuana side, you see people survive with precarious services with an extreme quality of life of needs…they do not work to generate or to improve their quality of life, they simply survive.”
-Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán
“When I stand on the U.S. side, the Tijuana border is a problem generator; garbage, dirty water, people crossing the fences,” says Oropeza. “From the Tijuana side, you see people survive with precarious services with an extreme quality of life of needs. The truth is that the people in Tijuana, if there is something they have, is that they are very hard-working, but they work to survive, they do not work to generate or to improve their quality of life, they simply survive.”
Binational Resilience Initiative
In the last couple of years, organizations like the San Diego Foundation have made funds available for binational projects, including extended water sampling work currently taking place by PFEA, a local NGO or non-governmental organization established to work towards public or social welfare goals.
The group for the past eight years has informed the public about the quality of water at Tijuana beaches.
“We want Tijuana and Rosarito to be informed that the water is dirty,” shared Sara Gonzalez from PFEA.
Oropeza agrees.
“It is a delicate issue, politically speaking, because it makes evident the situation of lack of governance that the state has here with respect to taking care of water emissions into the oceans and into the Tijuana River,” Oropeza said. “We are trying to do it as honestly as we can without misinforming. It is not anyone’s fault, it is everyone’s, it is the reality.”
She added residents and tourists on both sides of the border cannot enjoy the beaches without worrying about becoming ill from the sewage in the ocean.
“It is almost certain that someone who goes swimming at the beach in Tijuana will get sick because the level of bacteria is very high,” she said. “Unfortunately the city of Tijuana does not take decisive action…to close the beach like Imperial Beach does, like Coronado does, which is a shame.”
A program called the Binational Resilience Initiative also is working to clean the water in Tijuana.
Senior Manager Yamilett Carrillo, who has a doctoral degree in renewable natural resources with an emphasis in soil, water and environmental sciences, said the initiative addresses “our cross-border region’s climate vulnerabilities by empowering binational collaborations.”
Carillo also said that through the Binational Resilience Initiative various non-profit foundations can fund future projects that focus on climate relevance, economic prosperity, knowledge sharing, organizational resilience and research.
In the past few months, Oropeza’s lab and students have combined efforts with local NGO Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental A.C., which is working to raise awareness about the dangers the ongoing sewage pollution poses for Mexico.
But, the work has failed to capture the full interest of the Southern Border community, said Oropeza.
“It is necessary to help each other to achieve better living conditions for all.”
Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán
“It is necessary to help each other to achieve better living conditions for all,” Oropeza said. “The people of Imperial Beach deserve to have their homes and their access to the beach and to have fun because that is what they worked for and that is why they have those properties, just like Coronado, a tourist icon in California. On the Tijuana side, the people deserve better living conditions and better services.”
Seeking more resources for research
Regarding the metal separation technology, Oropeza said it could happen as early as the next five years, and she is hopeful that magnetic nanoparticles are something she and her team could bring to the forefront in future projects.
“Our devices can treat water, but only on a small scale,” said Oropeza. “What we can do by 2028 is to have a series of facilities prior to discharge into the sea and the river. Locally, the neighborhoods and companies could have their water quality improvement devices before discharging it into the sea and the river.”
While implementing this set of facilities or processes requires a timeline of approval and funds, Oropeza hopes that similar foundations continue to prioritize binational issues to advance efforts that may help with the ongoing sewage crisis.
What is needed is to tell it like it is, to tell the truth: things are going badly for us and I need your help.”
-Dra. Mercedes Teresita Oropeza Guzmán
“Right now, the driving force to deal with the water problem is to get the resources to Mexico,” she said. “What is needed is to tell it like it is, to tell the truth: things are going badly for us and I need your help.”
As Oropeza and her team work away to continue advancing their magnetic nanotechnology capabilities, she looks forward to sharing her work with willing partners.
“We have to be consistent and teach other young people because there has to be someone else to follow, and preferably not just one person, but several,” said Oropeza. “More people will be the strength.”
