A major sewage pump station serving the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant remained offline through the majority of this month, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). The station returned to service on Jan. 23.
When a pressure-relief valve failed on a surge tank the evening of New Year’s Day, the commission reported a spill totaling 30,000 gallons at Hollister Pump Station, of which the agency managed to recover 22,000 gallons via pump trucks.
A similar spill happened in June, and Veolia claims it had recommended the agency to replace tanks at both Hollister Pump Station and Goat Canyon Pump Station due to the risk of a recurrence.
In response, IBWC Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner said the agency prioritized Hollister Pump Station operations and urgent repairs.
On Jan. 23, the IBWC reported the Hollister Pump Station had returned to service along with the Goat and Smugglers Gulch canyon collectors.
Last year, Veolia became the defendant in a class-action lawsuit in September and separate mass tort cases in October and November filed on behalf of more than one dozen South Bay residents. Attorney Stephen B. Morris, an Imperial Beach resident who filed the lawsuit in September, said his plaintiffs sought diminution of the property values affected by the pollution.
Meanwhile, Frantz Law Group, which filed suit on behalf of four residents in November, announced the civil complaint sought monetary damages, requesting medical monitoring and testing of affected individuals.
The water company — which operates, maintains and manages the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant on behalf of the IBWC — said it has done an excellent job. But, the lawsuits allege otherwise.
“We will defend ourselves against their baseless accusations,” said spokesman Adam Lisberg in a statement issued on Nov. 18 and Jan. 18. “We look forward to working with our government partners to help bring about a long-term solution.”
Veolia celebrates recent funding
More than $650 million in federal funds have been earmarked for projects at the San Ysidro plant.
Veolia said new funding is a major step forward in a regional fight to end the pollution.
“Veolia’s dedicated staff has worked around the clock for years to operate the South Bay plant despite challenging conditions,” said Karine Rougé, CEO of Veolia North America’s Municipal Water division, in a statement. “While we will continue to advocate that Mexico meet its obligations to properly treat the raw sewage that flows into San Diego through other channels, a modernized and upgraded South Bay facility is a critical component of any lasting and holistic solution.”
Damaged tanks
The cause of the failure was determined to be a faulty valve, which was replaced by Jan. 23.
“While this should help make the Hollister Pump Station operable again, the system will remain at risk of new failures until both aged and damaged surge tanks are replaced, which Veolia continues to recommend,” said Lisberg in a statement on Jan. 10.
According to Lisberg, the valve was under warranty and Veolia obtained a rebuilding kit for the valve assembly from the manufacturer. The company did not disclose the manufacturer from whom it is obtaining the replacement valve.
This spill follows a similar event on June 17 which resulted from heavy inflows of grit and debris from a nearby highway construction project in Mexico that overwhelmed the pump station then, he said, destroying one of two surge tanks at the Hollister pump station.
The remaining surge tank, which according to Lisberg was left heavily damaged, returned to service without backup.
“It operated under extra strain and was at a greater risk of failure,” added Lisberg, noting it led to the two-hour spill on Wednesday, Jan. 1. “Veolia continues to recommend that the tanks be replaced. Veolia cannot replace the tanks without authorization from IBWC, which owns the pump station.”
On Jan. 23, the agency announced it plans for repairs at the Hollister and Goat Canyon Pump Station, including replacing tanks and updating electrical systems to ensure redundancy in the event of another failure.
Frank Fisher, public affairs officer, said the 8,000 gallons of untreated sewage the IBWC did not recover during the spill soaked into the ground outside the pump station, not reaching the ocean or river.
According to Fisher, when Hollister Pump Station is in operation, the flow at Smugglers Gulch averages 60,000 to 100,000 gallons per day and the flow at Goat Canyon averages 50,000 gallons per day, but these are not transboundary flows.
When Hollister was out of service, gates at Smugglers Gulch and Goat Canyon collectors were closed, he said.
For this reason, a few hours after the spill at the pump station, the collectors saw 310,000 gallons per day of transboundary flows, which the agency said started on Jan. 2.
Those flows are 202,000 gallons per day through Smugglers Gulch and 108,000 gallons per day through Goats.
The week of Jan. 9, IBWC said it cleaned out built-up sediment and trash at the Goat and Smugglers Gulch Canyon collectors to install new hay bales at these sites to decrease accumulation and reduce recurrence of spills.
Letter addresses spills
On Jan. 8, Chandrasekar Venkatraman, President of Capital Program Management at Veolia North America, asked Giner to “issue emergency authorization for Veolia to replace all the surge tanks at the Hollister Pump Station and the Goat Canyon Pump Station.”
In a letter, Venkatraman said Veolia had repeatedly informed IBWC staff about the urgency to replace tanks to fully restore the Hollister Pump Station following the spill in June.
“Operating with just one damaged, outdated tank left the Hollister Pump Station vulnerable to another failure, despite multiple recommendations from Veolia to replace the tanks,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, that failure occurred on Jan. 1, 2025 at around 6 p.m., when the vacuum release valve of the larger surge tank failed, leading to a spill in the Hollister Pump Station odor control building and eventually onto the nearby street.”
According to the letter, the IBWC added tank replacement recommendations to a years-long plant expansion and rehabilitation project, a timeframe the company had concerns about.
“Until the tanks are replaced, the small pumps are brought back online and the pump station is fully restored, we anticipate additional mechanical failures will occur due to the overuse of the large pumps for normal flows,” the letter continues. “Veolia stands ready to help expedite procurement of replacement tanks to fully restore the Hollister Pump Station and prevent additional failures at this critical piece of infrastructure.”
According to Giner, when sediment rendered Hollister Pump Station inoperable in July, the IBWC immediately procured the replacement of four new pumps, cleared grit and debris, repaired the electrical system, and secured additional pumps for redundancy, resulting in Hollister returning to operation within two months.
“The IBWC does and has always prioritized the reliability of the Hollister Pump Station and addressed issues at Hollister with urgency,” said Giner in a Jan. 10 statement in response to Veolia’s letter.
Lisberg said this month’s valve failure involved equipment replaced in September, therefore not expected to be at risk, nor typically kept on hand for replacement.
Giner said the IBWC is shifting to an expedited procurement for replacing the surge tanks and is working on projects with Mexico to prevent sediment that may reach Hollister.
“While the surge tank replacement is critical, Hollister Pump Station can be brought back into operation before the tanks are replaced,” Giner said. “Both the immediate repair to restore operability and the replacement of the surge tanks are being treated as urgent matters and are being resolved as quickly as possible.”
