United States and Mexican officials signed a Memorandum of Entesa on July 24 to quickly monitor several cross -border wastewater projects to end the southern wastewater in the Tijuana river at the end of 2027.
The administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, met with the Secretary of the Environment and the National Resources of Mexico Alicia Bárcena Ibarra in the Council of the Environmental Cooperation Commission (CEC) Memorandum d’Entesa (Mou) in Mexico City.
The Mou includes more than a dozen infrastructure improvement on both sides of the border, with Mexico compromising -six projects at the end of 2025. In addition, IBWC officials announced that the capacity of the South Bay Waste Water Waste Plant will now be doubled up to 50 million gallons a day at the end of 2027.
The Agreement updates a formal bilateral work plan adopted by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), known as Minute 328 Memorandum, signed in 2022.
When he was asked to comment on the accelerated updates of the MOU, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin told journalists during a press conference in Mexico City: “If the speed changes, this speed will have to be a speed to go faster.”
Zeldin called the pact “a massive and national victory of environmental and national security” in a statement, saying that the Mou counts population growth, operating and maintenance costs and other long -term variables in design and funding decisions.
Veolia North America, which operates the South Bay Waste Water Waste Treatment plant in the American part of the border, which is expanding and updating the Stantec and PCL Construction Design Design Team, said in a statement that it welcomes the new operating agreement between the two governments.
“ We hope that the agreements and actions seen in the Memorandum will holistically address the question of cross -border wastewater that has been plagued by the communities of San Diego County for years with beach closures, persistent smells and damage to the sensitive environmental habitat. Lisberg. Senior Vice President of External Communications of Veolia Na in a statement.
Under the last agreement, Mexico will allocate $ 93 million in funds to improve wastewater facilities on the southern part of the border. In addition, the Commissions of the State Mexico of Public Services of Tijuana and its Federal Water Agency, Conagua, will re -publish 10 million gallons a day of effluent treaties of the plants of Arturo Herrera and La Morita.
Other measures described in the contracting notices include restoring the parallel line of gravity and completing six priority projects at the end of 2025, with all other updates, including bombs 1 and cross -border collection pipes, leaves December 31, 2027.
Officials hope that the minute of follow -up will include at least a dozen additional measures, covering expanded transport capacity, lagoon updates, source control programs that occur in Tijuana and improved health monitoring protocols, to achieve a permanent and sustainable solution.
In front, the Mou directs the two governments to review all the schedules of the project within 100 days and negotiate a new IBWC minute at the end of this calendar year.
Meanwhile, as it is Informed in June, the US section of the IBWC granted the Stantec/PCL design design team a $ 42.4 million design design contract for the expansion of the South Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. This project aims to increase the capacity of 25 million to 35 million daily gallons over five years and, eventually, to 50 million GPD.
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The permits and the easements of the right also continue in parallel. The two governments end the cross -border easements and ensure the concurrence of the IBWC for pipe alignments under the river channel. In the meantime, the Regional Water Control Board of San Diego oversees the unloading permits and the mitigation of wetlands in accordance with California law, as shown by regulatory archives.
Cross -border wastewater flows have forced closures of the various beaches, including the community of iMperial Beach since 2021. Costa de San Diego, reports that the general closures of the beach must exceed 1,000 days, with cross -border flows to 50 million daily gallons during the storms.
The SCRIPPPS Institute of the University of California San Diego recently entered a website This values the level of pollution on local beaches. The pathogen forecast model, organized by the South California Coastal Ocean Ocean System in Scripps, shows planned levels of wastewater in the coastal ocean in the border region of San Diego-Ishuana, along with the risk of ocean swimming disease. The levels are based on the latest institute data that also uses the County of San Diego. The data model was developed with state funding and the additional funds to expand the tool were included in the Trade Justice Sciences of 2026 and the agencies related to the authorizations approved by the Chamber’s Sub -Committee in mid -July.
“The pathogen forecast model has a considerable ability to predict five days in the future the measures of the water quality of the beach made by the county of San Diego from the Imperial Beach to Coronado,” said the Oceanographer of Scripps Feddersen, the project leader, in a statement. “Of course, just as with weather forecasts, the model has an error. It is still experimental.”
