After years of inaction, local, state and federal officials stepped up efforts to address the pollution of South Bay beaches by allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to repair and expand wastewater treatment plants, with newly elected Coronado Mayor John Duncan highlighting the progress in his swearing-in ceremony.
We have received funding. We have actually achieved something.
Mayor John Duncan
“We have received funding. We have actually achieved something. There’s been groundbreakings on the expansion of the (South Bay International Water Treatment) plant, the rehabilitation of the plant. This is happening.” Duncan said.
The Coronado News published a five-part investigative series on the issue in 2023, describing how untreated wastewater is being discharged into the Pacific Ocean and flows north, closing beaches for weeks at a time … and a lot has happened since those stories ran.
Here is a wrap-up on 2024 developments with the Tijuana sewage calamity.
January
Previous Mayor Richard Bailey and then-Councilmember Duncan traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk to members of the U.S. House and Senate about the importance of allocating funds.
At the time, it was calculated that a total of $1 billion dollars was needed to fix the entire sewage problem, and not many representatives knew about the issue, according to Bailey.
Mexico broke ground on the construction of a new treatment plant that would replace the broken and outdated facility at Punta Bandera.
A couple of weeks later, wastewater from the Tijuana River overwhelmed the South Bay plant, peaking Jan. 22 with a flow of 75 million gallons per day (MGD). Due to winter storms, the river had reached its highest level in over 30 years.
The South Bay plant is only designed to treat up to 25 million MGD of raw sewage. That meant most of the polluted water gushed out to sea untreated. The planned expansion project would enable treatment of up to 50 MGD, with a peak capacity of 75 MGD.
February
The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) previously had secured a promise of $300 million from the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement in 2020. In early 2024, that money was made available by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The IBWC then went out to bid for a design-build contract to expand the South Bay treatment plant.
Meanwhile, the California Assembly passed a resolution seeking “immediate funding and an emergency declaration to address the growing environmental disaster at the Tijuana River watershed.”
March
The U.S. House and Senate passed the final set of 2024 appropriations bills, which included $156 million more in construction funding for the IBWC. This money would help go toward the rehabilitation project, but wouldn’t cover all costs. IBWC’s public affairs officer Frank Fisher said that $110 million of this would be used for the plant.
Maria Elena Giner, who leads the U.S. half of the IBWC, said repair work had already started at the plant, and she expected it to comply with federal standards by year’s end.
The IBWC later announced plans were moving forward with an estimated completion in 2027.
May
An update from the Tijuana sewage subcommittee that the city created showed that a major pump station project, funded by Mexico, was expected to be constructed this year. This would reduce cross-border flows in Goat Canyon, one of the canyon collectors on the U.S. side of the border.
June
All 18 San Diego City area mayors called for more federal and state assistance. Specifically, they asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health to investigate the effects of cross-border pollution on public health.
Coronado Unified School District Trustee Whitney Antrim hand delivered 448 letters to the Governor’s Office in Sacramento after the district led a letter-writing campaign with student groups increasing community advocacy to combat the Tijuana River pollution.
July
The House and Senate approved respective versions of the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA), which includes approximately $210 million for San Diego County and the Tijuana River Valley watershed.
Rep. Scott Peters, who represents Coronado, said $200 million can be used for fixes and upgrades at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant and for other purposes, such as countywide wastewater treatment.
However, Fisher said he is not aware of any of that money being used to rehabilitate the SBIWTP.
August
The IBWC announced that it awarded a $42.4 million design and construction contract to upgrade the SBIWTP.
The first phase of the expansion project, covered by the $42.4 million, involves design work. The complete multi-phased project will cost an estimated $600 million. Officials said the entire project could take five years to complete, and the design phase will be completed in 20 months. They also said some construction is anticipated to begin this year.
While calls for a federal emergency declaration to address the Tijuana sewage crisis grew louder, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma said a U.S. disaster law – the Stafford Act – wouldn’t allow officials to secure more funding with such a declaration.
Nevertheless, Verma, EPA officials and San Diego’s congressional representatives said they were treating the sewage crisis with the urgency of a public health emergency.
September
The Coronado City Council passed a resolution urging the federal and state governments to make the issue an “apex priority.”
Community members asked the council to declare a local state of emergency, but a majority said that the city has done everything within its power and such a declaration would be more a symbolic gesture than a trigger for action.
October
The IBWC announced it had launched a key construction design project to double sewage treatment capacity at SBIWTP.
December
President Joe Biden signed a bill that sets the stage for more than $250 million in additional upgrades for the treatment plant.
According to Fisher, before Biden’s bill, the IBWC had received a total of $400 million coming from the EPA’s funding of $300 million and $110 million of the $156 million from March’s 2024 appropriations bills.
The total amount projected for the plant to be repaired and expanded was $600 million, which after Biden’s allocation, should cover the entire cost of the project.
