The continuing resolution signed Dec. 21 by President Joe Biden to fund the federal government through March includes $250 million for the US International Boundary and Water Commission’s plan to repair and expand the wastewater treatment plant of South Bay in San Diego County, California. The plant’s construction plan will cost $600 million, with $350 million already committed in previous funding rounds.
The plant, owned by the U.S. arm of the binational border agency, has fallen into disrepair over the past two decades, while Tijuana, among other border cities, has seen manufacturing growth. 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 in March as the design engineer and contractor, respectively, for the project.
“This funding will help us continue our mission to protect the public health of communities along the US-Mexico border.” the American section said in a statement.
Local California officials and the Commission itself have previously said that fixing the South Bay plant is not the only step needed to stop transboundary flows of sewage, and that Mexico must also fix the infrastructure that causes the pollution .
Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner said in a January 2024 letter that, after a visit with Mexican counterparts and other authorities, “we have not yet seen any improvement in wastewater flows, specifically in terms of reductions in both transboundary flows” in the Tijuana River and in the Tijuana River. the South Bay 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 is a presidential appointment, and it is not yet known whether Giner will continue in that role in the incoming Trump administration.
She told the Voice of San Diego, a local publication, that when she took over as commissioner in 2021, she found handwritten lists of broken equipment in 12 of the agency’s field offices along the border and that no there was a central system to track the maintenance or inventory commission. equipment
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 that the plant, designed in the 1990s, was never intended to handle sewage flows across the border and that the current problems are not its fault.
“Fixing the North American component of the regional wastewater system is an American priority,” said Karine Rougé, CEO 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.”
He also said that more needs 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 for Mexico to 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.”
