THE
BAJAGUA PROJECT
THE BAJAGUA TEAM
HISTORY OF THE SEWAGE
PROBLEM
LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND
WHAT ARE COMPLETE MIX AREATION
PONDS (CMA)?
CMA
PONDS OPTIMIZED AT BAJAGUA
TREATMENT CAPACITY AND
RECLAIMED WATER
THE BAJAGUA PROJECT
The Bajagua Project is the wastewater treatment
plant to be built in Mexico to treat 59 million gallons per day
(mgd) of sewage generated in Tijuana. The Bajagua Project will
be privately financed and will be constructed, owned and operated
under a public/private partnership model. The design, construction
and operation will be competitively bid with operation of the
plant expected to start in September 2008. 
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THE BAJAGUA TEAM
The Bajagua Project, LLC is the private company
that will enter into a fee-for-services contract with the International
Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) for the ownership of the
project. The Bajagua team in conjunction with the IBWC and CILA
(their counterpart in Mexico) will competitively bid the design,
construction and operation of the Bajagua Project.
Enrique Landa and Jim Simmons are the
managing members of the company. Landa has been successful in
development in the United States and Mexico, completing hundreds
of commercial, industrial, and residential developments including
the Ciudad Obregin Treatment Plant, which was the first privatization
plant in Mexico. Simmons is the founder and president of Consultants
Collaborative, Inc., and has management experience with numerous
environmental projects ranging from trash-to-energy plants to
hazardous waste solutions. Al Rechany is Bajagua’s Director
for Operations. Rechany, an architect by profession, has 34 years
of experience developing and constructing public works projects
in and around the region, including the $1.8 billion clean water
program for the City of San Diego. Another member of the team
includes the engineering firm of R.W. Beck, Inc., an internationally
recognized design and engineering wastewater treatment firm.
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HISTORY OF THE SEWAGE
PROBLEM
Since the 1930s, Tijuana’s rapid population
and economic growth has outpaced its ability to control its waste.
Tijuana’s raw sewage is a leading cause of the contamination
of the Tijuana River Basin, Estuary, and beaches of South Bay
San Diego. This has resulted in a history of emergency beach closures
in the United States, impacting local economies, human health,
and the environment.
To address this problem, the United States and
Mexico have entered into international agreements (called Minutes)
to cooperate in the construction of sewage transport and treatment
facilities. The existing facilities lack the capacity to treat
all of the wastewater and, further, it is not being treated to
meet applicable Mexican and U.S. standards.
Both governments recognized that action
needed to be taken to provide a comprehensive program for secondary
treatment of wastewater generated in Tijuana. The ability to comprehensively
address this problem has only recently, by private sector ingenuity,
become possible. The Bajagua Project is the private sector solution
designed to address most of Tijuana’s present and future
sewage demands and provide a potential source of reclaimed water
to a region in serious need.
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LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND
In 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, a.k.a. Clean
Water Act, went in to effect. The Clean Water Act was amended
in 1987. One of the amendments is Section 510, which provides
the United States International Boundary and Water Commission
(USIBWC) and the EPA the legal authority to proceed with the International
Water Treatment Plant (IWTP) in the U.S. at a 25-mgd capacity.
This legal authority, along with Treaty Minutes 270 and 283, form
the basis of the federal agencies’ conduct so far regarding
their positions toward Bajagua.
In the early 1990’s, funding for the IWTP
was been limited by language in Section 510 and the 1993 VA-HUD
Appropriations Bill that imposed a spending cap on projects that
fell under Section 510. The concern by many in Congress and the
administration was that the project, at 25 mgd, would not meet
current or future demand and would ultimately not address the
main source of sewage based pollution in the Tijuana River Valley
on the United States side of the border.
Because the original “minutes” between
the US and Mexico did not allow for the construction of an appropriately
sized plant and limited the location to a site in the United States,
legislative action was required to provide for a minimum of 50
mgd, with the right to relocate the project in Mexico. As a result,
PL 106-457 was signed into law on November 7, 2000. Title VIII
of this law provided the needed authority relating to capacity
and location, and further authorized the USIBWC to contract with
Bajagua as the owner of the Mexican Facility for wastewater treatment
services.
Subsequently, Congress reauthorized the legislation
in 2003 as discussions between the two countries progressed. Following
reauthorization, the IBWC and CILA adopted a new minute, Minute
311, which formalized the agreement to move forward on a public-private
partnership to develop an appropriately sized sewage treatment
plant in Mexico.
Treaty Minutes 270, 283 and 311 relate to The
Treaty for the Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana
Rivers and of the Rio Grande, dated February 1944, which deals
with the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico regarding cross
border flows of surface water in San Diego and Tijuana. When agreements
are reached, which further the intent of the Treaty, these agreements
are memorialized as Treaty Minutes.
Treaty Minute 283 directly deals with
the implementation of the IWTP. It sets forth the U.S. obligation
to provide 25-mgd of secondary treatment in the U.S., and it discusses
the implementation of industrial pretreatment in Mexico, construction
of an ocean outfall in the U.S., and cost sharing for construction
and
O & M. Under Treaty Minute 283, the U.S. and Mexico reserve
the right to “return for reuse” any or all of the
effluent from the IWTP that originated in each respective country,
meaning Mexico has the right to reuse the water generated by their
country and treated at the U.S. facility. Treaty Minute 311 amended
the previous minute to allow for a larger facility, as determined
by an EPA Master Plan study pegging the need at 59 mgd, located
in Mexico, under private ownership with the design, construction
and operation to be competitively bid.
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WHAT ARE COMPLETE MIX AREATION
PONDS (CMA)?
A completely mixed aerated (CMA) pond system
is a wastewater treatment technology consisting of parallel trains
of ponds working in sequence. The CMA ponds will operate with
settling and completely mixed activated sludge treatment processes.
Diffusers using a fine bubble aeration system will be arranged
on the bottom of the aeration basin. The wastewater in these ponds
will be continuously aerated to optimize air transfer and oxidation.
The CMA technology was selected by the EPA as the environmentally
preferred technology for treatment of the Mexican wastewater.
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CMA PONDS OPTIMIZED AT
BAJAGUA
The proposed Bajagua Treatment Plant will
be superior to the modified CMA technology selected by the EPA
as the preferred alternative for the U.S. plant. Bajagua will
build its ponds with an HDPE polyethylene pond liner system, which
is a more effective solution in preventing sewage leaks into the
surrounding area and ground water. Also, by adding a second set
of digester ponds, not included in the EPA’s project, Bajagua
promotes increased settling and treatment of sludge early in the
process. Due to size of the Bajagua site, the ponds can be modified
in ways not available at the U.S. Hofer site. This will increase
the time the wastewater is resident in the treatment process,
significantly improving treatment levels and preventing closure
of the plant due to toxic chemical spikes.
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TREATMENT CAPACITY AND
RECLAIMED WATER
Bajagua will treat an average daily flow of
25 mgd of advanced primary effluent from the IWTP and have the
capacity to accept peak flows up to 59 mgd of sewage from other
areas in Tijuana. As a result, Bajagua could provide upwards of
40,000 acre-feet of reclaimed water per year, which represents
56% of Tijuana’s current usage. The Bajagua plant will comply
with U.S., Mexico and California laws for secondary water reuse.
One goal of the Bajagua Project is to
reclaim all or most of its treated effluent for industrial reuse,
public greenbelts, and potential groundwater recharge. Reuse will
offset the non-potable water demands of new and existing industries
at a lower cost, and without impacting the limited potable water
supply. Bajagua will help to conserve Tijuana’s limited
water supply and may eliminate the need for an expensive second
aqueduct from the Colorado River.
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