The U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) announced it has launched a key construction design project on Oct. 29 to double sewage treatment of water flow capacity at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP).
In August the IBWC issued a $42.4 million design contract to rehabilitate the plant to allow for a daily treatment capacity of 50 million gallons, with up to 75 million gallons during peak flows. The broken plant’s current capacity is 25 million gallons per day.
This $42.4 million is going toward a bypass system for the primary facilities and in-depth structural assessments. That will be followed with concrete repairs in early 2025, announced the agency.
And on Oct. 29 Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner celebrated what she said is the first of three early work packages that will prepare the plant for the construction.
Giner said the phase of construction under the $42.4 million contract includes the first package of setting up a bypass system for the primary facilities and performing in depth structural assessments of the concrete structures. The second early package or site preparation will follow along with procurement of equipment as the third early package.
But, the design-build contract is only part of the total $600 million project.
So far IBWC has secured $400 million of the estimated total cost, making full construction contingent on available funding.
The “progressive design-build,” which is an effort to expedite the construction timeline, has a design projected for May 2026. The IBWC said full rehabilitation and expansion construction will take up to an estimated five years.
The plant will remain in operation throughout design and construction, and the agency has already begun repairs to a junction site announced on Oct. 1.
IBWC awarded the contract to PCL Construction of Long Beach, which selected Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. of San Diego as the design firm, according to an agency news release.
Funding still needed
The rehab and expansion project launch follows the Mexican government appropriating $33 million for the wastewater treatment plant at Punta Bandera, where millions more gallons of raw sewage enter the ocean six miles south of the border, and is then carried north by summer currents.
Late last month, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo made her first official trip to the Baja California region since taking office. The San Diego Union Tribune reported she toured Mexican federal projects, including the San Antonio de los Buenos sewage treatment plant at Punta Bandera.
A September completion date was announced for the work at the Punta Bandera plant.
According to Coronado Councilmember John Duncan, the Punta Bandera wastewater facility was scheduled to be turned on no later than Oct 1.
“Immediately when that was announced I told pretty much everybody I know that if it’s open within six months of that I’ll be very happy,” said Duncan, noting that Coronado and Imperial Beach could see dramatically lower summer beach closures once and if the Mexican facility opens next Spring.
State of emergency requests continue
The IBWC’s project is designed to fulfill a binational agreement known as Minute 328 while eliminating up to 90% of untreated Tijuana River wastewater reaching the coast.
“The USIBWC anticipates providing more definitive estimates of the full project cost and the construction schedule once the project reaches the 30% design stage in spring 2025 and 60% design stage by fall 2025,” says a release from IBWC. “Early construction packages have been issued during the design phase to enable work to start in 2024.”
At the South Bay plant launch, Imperial Beach resident and local artist Esmeralda Robles, 46, displayed her “Save IB” mural, a work in progress depicting the sewage crisis with the words, “STATE OF EMERGENCY,” written in red across the top.
Robles created the mural for a previous demonstration in Imperial Beach to protest the pollution, but the message in her request is the same, to get the problem fixed.
“It makes me kind of upset because we have to live in this sewage, but if they lived in it … they wouldn’t appreciate this nonstop smell,” said Robles about public officials who have power to alleviate a health threat, but refuse to treat it as an emergency.
