Congress Could Aid Border Sewage Project                

SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL

July 28, 2003

A San Diego company looking to build sewage treatment facility in Tijuana got a boost earlier this month from Congress.

The .Bajagua Project; LLC, which would treat sewage washing ashore on US beaches, has been held up because an international treaty on border sewage must first be renegotiated. But Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, and Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Escondido, inserted an amendment into a foreign relations bill July 17 to speed up the process.

The amendment reiterates earlier language from a 2000 law. The earlier law directed the International Boundary and Water Commission to renegotiate the pact, allowing a private company to construct and operate a treatment plant in Mexico.

Dave Schlesinger, director of operations for Bajagua, said July 23 that the amendment could break the impasse. He added that the agency had made no progress since 2000, and the new amendment puts additional pressure on commission members by compelling them to provide monthly updates to Congress.

This facility would process 60 million gallons a day of raw sewage that flows in the Tijuana River estuary. Most of it ends up on beaches in southern San Diego County, he said.