A major Tijuana pipeline collapse is causing a lot of sewage-tainted water to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
The cross-border flow began Sunday night, and is expected to continue flowing across the border at a rate of more than 30 million gallons a day.
An estimated 49.9 million gallons have already entered the United States.
United States International Boundary and Water Commission officials say repairs will likely take longer than an initial estimate of four to five days.
U.S officials say a couple of pressurized wastewater lines in Tijuana’s Matadero Canyon have collapsed. There is significant erosion.
Initial flows contained a lot of sediment and were coming across the border at Smuggler’s Gulch. Those flows clogged the collector that sends cross border flows to a nearby sewage plant.
As a result of the sewer line issue, Mexican officials turned off a pumping station in the Tijuana River channel and sewage tainted flows are entering the U.S. there.
The IBWC is meeting with Mexican officials at the border on Tuesday to plan a course of action. They invited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Regional Water Quality Control Board to attend the meeting.
The cross-border flow is larger than the amount of dirty water that can be treated at the international wastewater plant.
That means the polluted cross-border flows are heading for the ocean.
