Union-Tribune Editorial

No money, no talks on sewage plant

November 1, 2001
By Leslie Wolf Branscomb

It's been a year since legislation was passed calling for the United States and Mexico to negotiate terms for a new border sewage treatment plant, but no negotiations have taken place.

This week, border officials got a direct answer as to why, though it wasn't what anyone wanted to hear: no money.

"There's no funding," International Boundary and Water Commissioner Carlos Ramirez told a room full of elected officials. "There's nothing to negotiate if there's no funding," he said.

On Nov. 7, President Clinton signed an estuary cleanup law, passed unanimously by Congress, that included provisions for the two countries to begin discussing a proposed treatment plant in Tijuana. The legislation specified negotiations were to start within 60 days.

The law, authored by Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, and former Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Imperial Beach, also authorized $156 million for the project.

But Congress did not appropriate funding for the treatment plant this budget year, said Ramirez. "You authorize a bill, but if there's no funding it has no effect," he said.

Ramirez also said the law, as written, says the government is "requested" to initiate negotiations, not "mandated."

His statement had many in the room rolling their eyes and muttering in frustration. The meeting Tuesday evening, called by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was held in the International Boundary and Water Commission office in the Tijuana River Valley.

The backers of the Bajagua project, which has the most to gain from the negotiations and the most to lose if they never occur, were incredulous.

"They can negotiate with anybody, and frequently do, and it doesn't take funding," said Bajagua spokesman Craig Benedetto.

Bajagua's backers propose to build a plant in Tijuana to treat border sewage at a higher, secondary level than it receives at the existing International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Tijuana River Valley. Reclaimed waste water would be sold to Mexican businesses for a profit.

But first, Bajagua's backers need to have a decades-old treaty renegotiated. The treaty limits the size of any treatment plant and calls for the Mexican sewage that flows north across the border to be treated on the U.S. side.

"The commissioner basically picked a fight with the two congressmen," Benedetto said.

Filner, who was not at the meeting, said yesterday that Ramirez's comments were "unbelievable."

"He completely, and I think purposely, misunderstands the situation," Filner said.

Filner said State Department and IBWC officials assured him earlier this year that no money was needed to start the negotiations.

"There's no excuse," he said. "They're just purposely dragging their feet. For what reason, I don't know."

"This guy (Ramirez) has a job to solve sewage problems along the border and we've given him the tools to do it, but he won't," Filner said. "If he doesn't want the job, he should resign."

When it rains, raw sewage runs through the canyons and gullies of Tijuana, moving north over the border. It runs through the Tijuana River and out onto the beach in Imperial Beach.

In addition, sewage that is treated at an advanced primary level at the International Wastewater Treatment Plant has never passed government standards for toxicity. It is pumped into the ocean through an outfall off the Imperial Beach shoreline.

The commissioner's stance aggravated officials from Imperial Beach, which suffers when sewage spills close their beaches, endanger public health and threaten tourism.

"It's just delay, delay and delay," said exasperated Imperial Beach Mayor Diane Rose, after the meeting. "We want the highest degree of treatment in the shortest amount of time," she said. "It's been a year now, and nothing has happened. It's frustrating."

Councilwoman Mayda Winter added, "There has to be a point where you just cut the losses. If it's not going to happen, then discussions need to be opened as to alternatives."

Residents of the Tijuana River Valley fear those alternatives might include resurrecting an Environmental Protection Agency plan to build open-air sewage ponds in the valley.

"The worst scenario I see is a stalemate," said Art Letter, general manager of the Tia Juana Valley County Water District. "That's going to hurt everybody, including I.B."

During the past year there has been a lot of finger-pointing and speculation as to why the negotiations haven't started.

Rose, the mayor of Imperial Beach, said the burden should be shared by Bajagua and Congress for not getting the money.

Some environmentalists have said Mexico actually does not want the Bajagua project built. Bajagua's backers say Mexican officials favor the plan.

Before the meeting, Benedetto said it appeared that the delay was due to a misunderstanding about protocol and that Mexican officials were awaiting a formal invitation to negotiate from the U.S. State Department.

Letter said some delay has been caused by a lawsuit filed by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board against the IBWC, accusing it of violating the federal Clean Water Act because the partially treated sewage from the International Wastewater Treatment Plant fails to meet clean-water standards.

Some have accused the EPA of bogging down the process while working on its own master plan to help upgrade Tijuana's sewage system. EPA representative Wendi Shafir said Tuesday that it is not the agency's intention.

Others have suggested that President Bush's Republican administration has had little enthusiasm to carry out the last- minute laws signed by the preceding Democratic president. But, Filner said, "there is no reason this administration shouldn't be able to understand what last year's administration did."

Filner said he didn't yet know what he would do to try to get his legislation back on track.

"But you can be sure it's going to be aggressive," he said.