The continuing resolution to fund the federal government through March, signed by President Biden on December 21, included $250 million to fund the US International Boundary and Water Commission’s plan to repair and expand the treatment plant South Bay wastewater in San Diego County, California.
The overall plan to expand and repair the plant will cost $600 million, with $350 million already committed in previous funding rounds. The plant, owned by the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, has fallen into disrepair over the past two decades while Tijuana has experienced growth in manufacturing. Water treatment infrastructure on the Mexican side of the border has been unable to keep up with development, sending raw sewage down the Tijuana River and into San Diego County.
Stantec and PCL were selected as the design engineer and contractor for the project in March.
“We appreciate the support from Congress, the administration and other stakeholders. This funding will help us continue our mission to protect the public health of communities along the US-Mexico border.” the American section of the Commission said in a statement.
Local officials and the Commission itself have previously said that fixing the South Bay plant is not the only step needed to stop cross-border flows of raw sewage, and that Mexico needs to fix the infrastructure south of the border that it also causes pollution.
Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner said in a letter in January that, after a visit with Mexican counterparts and other authorities south of the border, “we have not yet seen any improvement in wastewater flows, specifically because to the reductions in the two transboundary flows in the Tijuana River and flows into the South Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In October, the Commission supported an environmental study on the effects of sewage flows reaching communities such as Imperial Beach and Chula Vista. The commissioner of the US section of the IBWC is a presidential appointment and it is not yet known whether Giner will continue in that role in the incoming Trump administration. Giner told the Voice of San Diego that when she took over as commissioner in 2021, she found handwritten lists of broken equipment at the agency’s 12 field offices along the border and that there was no central system to track maintenance or even which equipment had the commission.
Veolia Water, the engineering consultant that manages the plant for the commission, has been sued by residents and San Diego County commissioners over the current wastewater crisis. It has maintained throughout that the plant, designed in the 1990s, was never intended to handle sewage flows that cross the border and that the problems are not its fault.
“Fixing the North American component of the regional wastewater system is an American priority,” said Karine Rougé, general manager of Veolia North America’s municipal water division. “We are deeply grateful to Congress and especially the San Diego congressional delegation for providing funds to protect residents, communities, businesses and military installations that depend on a clean coastal environment.”
Rougé also said that more will need to be done to fix the water situation on both sides of the border.
“Veolia’s dedicated staff has worked for years to operate the South Bay plant despite challenging conditions,” Rougé said. “While we will continue to advocate that Mexico meet its obligations to properly treat the raw sewage flowing into San Diego through other channels, a modernized and improved South Bay facility is a critical component of any lasting and holistic solution.”
