A state bill that could have paid for environmental restoration projects in the polluted Tijuana River Valley no longer has that goal, after the bill’s sponsor revised it to focus on what he says is a more pressing need.
Last year State Sen. Steve Padilla introduced SB10 to allow the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional transportation agency, to use a portion of toll revenue from the future Otay Mesa East Port of Entry to clean up polluted lands in the valley, which lies along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Revisions made last month to the bill took the mitigation fund off the table, instead authorizing local officials to use the funds to “assist in the maintenance” of the federally owned South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Though many local advocates still support the bill, some say the change to the legislation is a lost opportunity for a more holistic plan to address long-term environmental impacts of the Tijuana River sewage crisis on South Bay communities.
Since 2018, 100 billion gallons of sewage and untreated wastewater have poured through the Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean.
“The wastewater treatment plant is a very important part of the solution. Yes, true, but it’s only one piece of the solution,” said Fay Crevoshay, a policy director for Wildcoast, a binational coastal advocacy organization.
Padilla told inewsource he changed the bill in reaction to a shortage of funds dedicated to maintenance of the wastewater treatment plant, an issue he says is one reason why the pollution problem has grown over the last decades.
“There isn’t a stable, permanent source of revenue that is dedicated to capital development or to operations. It’s sort of just subject to the normal budget process, which can be crazy,” Padilla said.
“I think every opportunity to help support that is important,” Padilla said. “I think you always have to think about maximum impact.”
Lawmakers have secured funds for repairs and expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, but say their next focus is to consider funding avenues for long-term maintenance.
“We were operating a federal facility owned by the federal government not meeting federal law, and that’s completely unacceptable,” said Maria-Elena Giner, the U.S. commissioner of the International Water and Boundary Commission, at a community meeting in San Ysidro last month.
“That wastewater treatment plant was in poor condition because of the lack of maintenance that had gone into it,” Giner said.
Community members attending the meeting voiced their concerns over the long-term impacts of the pollution on areas within and around the river valley.
Phillip Musegaas, the executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, a local advocacy group which is in the process of litigation with the federal government, said that he will continue to support the bill but was concerned about the change.
“If we’re going to have this long-term source of revenue devoted to this Tijuana sewage crisis, it would be helpful if it had more flexibility,” Musegaas said.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said that she understood that the change was made for the bill to have “more solid footing so that if and when the bill passes, the funding can go directly into an already functioning federal piece of infrastructure that is addressing the intent of what the bill is meant to address.”
Aguirre, who’s seeking a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, has called for federal and state leaders to declare a state of emergency to trigger funds to address the Tijuana River sewage crisis.
“Eventually we know – and I want to be very clear about this – we need to divert and treat the river,” Aguirre said.
“There is no doubt that we need better, broader and new funding for mitigation efforts,” Padilla said. “I’m not going to give up on that. It just may be in a different place, in a different avenue and a different approach.”
Update: March 5, 2025. The headline of this story has been updated to specify that “restoration” and “environmental mitigation” projects were removed from the bill which now directs funds exclusively for maintenance at the wastewater treatment plant, as previously reported.
