While calls to fix the Tijuana sewage crisis grow louder, U.S. Department of State Deputy Secretary Richard Verma said a federal disaster law – the Stafford Act – won’t allow officials to secure more funding by declaring a state of emergency.
“The Stafford Act, which applies to this area, doesn’t actually apply to the plant,” Verma said, referring to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) after he toured the facility on Aug. 29. “The particular federal law that’s applicable doesn’t actually allow us to declare a state of emergency, but we are operating as if there is a public health emergency.”
The Stafford Act outlines how the federal government provides disaster assistance and prescribes whether cross-border pollution, or more specifically the dilapidated plant itself, fits the definition of a major disaster or emergency.
“Funding is intended to support incidents that are sudden or unexpected, such as natural disasters, accidental oil spills or, most recently, contagious diseases like COVID-19, not ongoing situations for which the needs are long-term or broader in scope,” the San Diego Union Tribune noted in an article last year.
Verma, along with EPA officials and San Diego’s congressional representatives, all said on Aug. 29 that they are operating to fix the issue with the urgency of a public health emergency.
“In the past 18 months, we’ve invested $31 million on maintenance and repairs to get the plant back into compliance,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (CA-50).
Most recently, a $42.4 million dollar contract was secured to begin the design phase of the total $600 million overhaul and expansion project.
Maria-Elena Giner, U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission, noted there is the uptick in funding but said all of the current progress is “catch up” from a decade-long period – from 2010 to 2021 – where only $4 million was invested in maintaining the plant.
“Everything we’re doing now is just catch up,” Giner said. “This process of continued collaboration and transparency with Mexico has to happen all the time from here, forever on. Because if not, we are going to slip into a level of comfort where we’re not going to have the maintenance either here, or in Mexico, needed to protect the region.”
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said her constituents are at the frontlines of the contamination issue.
“They are suffering the ailments — the upper respiratory illnesses, the lower respiratory illnesses, the gastrointestinal illnesses — from exposure to all these pollutants,” Aguirre said. “So we want to just reiterate our interest, and frankly, our desperation from our constituents to get not just this plant fixed, but also to divert and treat the Tijuana River itself.”
