On May 1, a bipartisan group of elected officials sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, demanding for more money to be allocated for the Tijuana sewage crisis.
This was part of the “AD HOC” cross-border water quality subcommittee’s quarterly report given on May 7 at the Coronado City Council meeting.
The subcommittee is made up of Mayor Richard Bailey and Council member John Duncan and was authorized on April 2, 2023 to work with federal officials and focus on “outreach and advocacy” on the Tijuana sewage crisis, including visits to Washington, D.C., said City Manager Tina Friend.
Money matters
$330 million was allocated by the federal government in 2022 for the improvement of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) in San Ysidro, and in order to provide international cooperation and funding, the United States and Mexico signed Minute Order 328 also in 2022, according to the staff report.
Under Minute Order 328, the Mexican government contributed a total of $144 million to the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant (SAB Treatment Plant) in Punta Bandera, Mexico in 2022.
And according to the city staff report, as of March 23, President Biden signed a Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill with an additional $200 million to the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), $156 million specifically for the SBIWTP.
But even with the funds allocated by both governments, a total of almost a billion dollars is needed to fix the problem, according to International Boundary and Water Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner – a similar total other key officials told The Coronado News in June of last year.
However, Duncan is hopeful in the direction they are going.
“One thing that’s going on now that’s really important is the top officials from the State Department, in our case the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, and also on the Mexico side, the Baja, California governor [Marina del Pilar Avila Olmeda], are meeting regularly to hold each other accountable,” Duncan said.
As the city and other local officials continue to call for more funds, the staff report relayed the progress made in the efforts of fixing the Tijuana sewage crisis as of March of this year.
Updates on projects
The goals of these infrastructure efforts are to complete the projects by 2027, see a 90% reduction in the number of days of transboundary wastewater flow in the Tijuana River and see a 80% reduction of untreated wastewater discharged into the Pacific Ocean south of the border, according to the staff report.
The Los Laureles 1 Pump Station project was funded by Mexico and is expected to be constructed this year. This will reduce cross-border flows in Goat Canyon, one of the canyon collectors on the U.S. side of the border.
$37 million of the total $144 million provided by Mexico is now being used to rehabilitate the SAB Treatment Plant where a groundbreaking ceremony was held in mid-January. Completion of the project is set for October of this year and the end goal is to treat 18 million gallons per day, which will reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharged into the ocean.
Before this, the plant at Punta Bandera had been out of commission for years, according to Margarita Diaz, the general director of Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental, an organization that raises awareness over Tijuana River contamination and infrastructure issues.
The IBWC completed repairs to the primary sedimentation tank at the SBIWTP, the first of five tanks to return to operation. Two more tanks should be returning to operation by July as at least three tanks are needed for proper wastewater treatment. According to the staff report, all were taken out of service in early 2023 due to excess flows into the plant from Mexico and damaging the tanks.
The IBWC also announced in March that they plan to move forward with the SBIWTP expansion project this summer, with an estimated completion in 2027.
The expansion project is to increase water treatment from 25 million gallons per day (MGD) to 50 MGD with additional capacity to treat daily peak flows up to 75 MGD reliably for short periods of time, according to the IBWC.
Bipartisan support
Duncan also mentioned a letter that was sent on May 1 by Congressman Scott Peters with demands for the 2025 funding regarding the cross-border pollution.
“I was really happy to see this letter,” Duncan said. “One thing that’s really rewarding when you look at this demand is there’s a real strong bipartisan group of signatures.”
Duncan mentioned Congressman Dan Crenshaw, Juan Vargas, Katie Porter and Sarah Jacobs were among other representatives that signed the letter.
“The letter went to the chairs and ranking members on the Appropriations Committee, and that’s where it has to start,” Duncan said.
