There’s new pressure to fix the cross-border sewage problem. A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the operator of the International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Ysidro.
The lawsuit was filed by some Imperial Beach residents to force that operator, Veolia Water North America, to fix the problems at their plant. It’s not a class action, but a mass action lawsuit — meaning residents of Imperial Beach who have been impacted by the sewage are banding together.
One of those activists is a longtime body surfer Baron Partlow.
"I just feel that I have been assaulted and criminally trespassed on when I cannot take my grandson to the beach," said Partlow at a Tuesday afternoon news conference.
The law firm Singleton Schreiber is bringing the suit under California’s public nuisance law, which says if someone or a company is causing a nuisance that prevents a person from normal enjoyment of their property, they can be sued.
Brett Schreiber is the lead attorney on the case. He said over the last five years, there have been more than 500 incidents of raw sewage being dumped from the Veolia plant into the ocean, amounting to a billion gallons.
"We believe that this environmental catastrophe could have and should have been prevented if Veolia had just simply done their job. If any of us had done our jobs as poorly as Veolia has, we would all be fired," Schreiber said.
San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer also spoke at the news conference. She said she’s going to bring this issue before the County Board of Supervisors next week to explore a public lawsuit against the company.
In an email to KPBS, Veolia said, "We are currently reviewing this complaint, but we can already state that these allegations are meritless. Veolia North America has done its best to help operate the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the face of increasingly challenging circumstances.
"The overwhelming cause of the odors and pollution affecting Imperial Beach is the excessive and uncontrolled sewage flows from Tijuana, much of which never even enters the South Bay plant."
