The smell of sewage filled the air at the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant just north of the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday.
Repairs and expansion efforts are underway to double its capacity from 25 million gallons per day to 50 million, with an estimated price tag of $610 million. The federal government has allocated about half that, and other funding is still pending.
But Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said even an expanded South Bay plant can’t manage Tijuana’s sewage on its own.
“You can’t make it big enough,” he said. “You can’t handle a river.”
Vargas said he feels hopeful after a recent congressional delegation trip to Mexico. Officials there said repairs to the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant will be finished by late September.
“It’s absolutely essential that they finish that project,” Vargas said.
Mechanical issues have left much of the water flowing through that plant untreated before it goes into the ocean, according to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. The renovated plant is expected to treat 18 million gallons of wastewater per day. About 40 million gallons of wastewater and Tijuana River water flow toward that plant each day, according to a 2021 report.
In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency said repairing the treatment plants on both sides of the border would help reduce untreated wastewater flowing into the Pacific Ocean by 80%.
Some South Bay beaches have been closed for more than 950 days due to high bacteria levels. County leaders have asked state and federal health officials to investigate health issues associated with the pollution.
San Diego County, the Port of San Diego and the cities of San Diego and Imperial Beach have declared local emergencies and called for additional funding to repair the South Bay plant. Mayors throughout the county have asked Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden to declare state and federal emergencies.
Vargas said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration has kept its promise to repair the San Antonio de los Buenos plant. He said President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum assured U.S. leaders she’ll continue to address the problem.
“I finally feel good about it,” Vargas said. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to say that in probably 20 years.”
