The United States and Mexico announced new deadlines for projects to address the decades-old Tijuana River sewage crisis identified in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that reiterates a pact adopted by both sides years ago.
“This isn’t just an agreement for 2025,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. “It was a product of a conversation of, ‘Where do we need to be in 2030, in 2035 and beyond, as we look towards infrastructure challenges faced on the Mexico side?’ And there are a lot of new Mexican side projects that Mexico is agreeing to as part of this memorandum of understanding.”
Zeldin and Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s environmental secretary, signed the MOU outlining renewed commitments to address the longstanding binational environmental emergency that has polluted the Imperial Beach and Coronado shorelines.
Lee called years past negotiations of projects identified in Minute 328 an 80% solution that failed to factor in Tijuana’s increasing population.
The Minute 328 plans came from a 2022 agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that aimed to complete infrastructure projects to treat sewage. Expanding on that agreement, Mexico and the U.S. entered into a new pact on July 24.
Minutes are official agreements made by the U.S. and Mexican sides of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), a bilateral agency that oversees border issues.
“What the residents of Southern California need and deserve, what they’ve been waiting for for too long, isn’t just a solution that is a Band Aid for that moment, but a permanent 100% solution,” Zeldin told reporters via a webinar from Mexico City.
Zeldin was joined by officials like IBWC Commissioner Chad McIntosh and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson, hours before signing.
This follows Lee’s visit to San Diego in April to witness the crisis first-hand. He met with Navy SEALs who shared their accounts of dealing with the sewage.
“The trip was very informative,” said Lee. “I smelled for myself that foul smell that so many residents of southern California have been complaining about for so long.”
Lee said the visit ignited a “burning desire” within the Trump administration to dedicate energy and time to bring these residents relief “as quickly as possible.”
“President Trump told us that he wanted this done, especially when he saw the story of the impacts to the Navy SEAL training,” he added.
According to Lee, the administration prioritized three pillars during negotiations with Mexico.
“I’m proud to report that we achieved success with regards to all three of our highest priorities,” he said, outlining each pillar.
Pillar No. 1 was for the Mexican government to allocate a remaining $93 million to fund Minute 328 projects, which would mitigate untreated wastewater from polluting coastal communities, harming public health and threatening the environment on both sides of the border.
Pillar No. 2 was to “stress test” timelines for projects, speeding up completion of Minute 328 projects, including some to be completed in 2025.
Pillar No. 3 focused on developing a new minute by Dec. 31 to “achieve a permanent 100% solution” with more than one dozen actions addressing the sewage crisis. Among these is developing a real-time binational monitoring system that tracks flow inputs and outputs in the Tijuana River.
The MOU says Mexico will seek funding through either Mexico’s National Water Commission, CONAGUA, or the Baja California state government, to initiate the construction process of two projects in 2025.
One project, at a cost of $13.3 million, is the diversion of 10 million gallons per day (mgd) of treated sewage entering the Tijuana River from the Arturo Herrera and La Morita wastewater plants to a site upstream of the Rodríguez Dam. The second project is rehabilitation of the Parallel Gravity Line, totalling $8.42 million.
The U.S. will release EPA funding to complete the rehabilitation of a key pump station and Tijuana River collection pipes upon initiation of that construction, says the MOU.
The U.S. also plans to provide backup power for some of Mexico’s projects.
By December of 2027, the U.S. aims to complete expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant from 25 mgd to 50 mgd.
Earlier this year, the agency announced the plant’s daily treatment capacity would increase from 25 mgd to 35 mgd, a 100-day plan slated for completion by August 28, 2025.
Meanwhile, Mexico commits to allocate the remaining Minute 328 funds, $93 million, in its 2026 and 2027 budgets to ensure slotted projects are completed by Dec. 31 of the latter year, or sooner. The MOU outlines these funds will go toward projects that would rehabilitate and upgrade existing pump systems and interceptors.
“The Trump administration heard you loudly and clearly,” Lee said, addressing residents in southern California affected by the crisis in the hours before he signed a commitment from the U.S. “This is a launch of implementation of a 100% permanent solution that we will ensure. … As we move forward, whatever needs to be done to ensure implementation will be done.”
Veolia North America, which operates the U.S. plant on behalf of the IBWC, congratulated the federal agencies and called the agreement “a major milestone” for the affected cross-border region.
“We are hopeful that the agreements and actions set out in the memorandum will holistically address the cross-border sewage issue that has plagued San Diego County communities for years with beach closures, persistent odors and damage to sensitive environmental habitat,” said Adam Lisberg, spokesman for Veolia, in a statement.
“Veolia, like all community members, is pleased that Mexico has agreed to a series of engineering and construction projects south of the border that will reduce flows of raw sewage – the source of the persistent odors and beach closures – into the Tijuana River and Pacific Ocean by increasing the amount of sewage treated in Mexico,” Lisberg added.
