Private plant would be built in Mexico

By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
STAFF WRITER

February 2, 2002

The U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission has announced that negotiations have finally been initiated to alter a treaty between the United States and Mexico governing the treatment of border sewage.

But Rep. Bob Filner, one of those who has been pushing for negotiations to begin, remains skeptical.

"It appears they're doing the absolute minimum to say they're responsive to Congress, rather than getting the job done," said Filner, D-San Diego. "I hope I'm wrong."

More than 14 months have passed since former President Clinton signed a law asking the IBWC to begin negotiations. The goal of the law is to amend the treaty to allow a private sewage treatment plant to be built in Mexico.

Negotiations were supposed to start within 60 days after the law was enacted in January 2001. But the process was repeatedly stalled, first by the changeover in presidential administrations that month, and then by the wait to appoint a new IBWC commissioner.

But even after Carlos M. Ramirez took the commissioner's job in April, negotiations didn't start. In October, Ramirez told a group of South Bay elected officials and their representatives that there was no funding to start negotiations.

Filner and others said money wasn't necessary to start negotiating. Filner then called for a congressional subcommittee hearing into the matter, which took place last month.

On Wednesday, Ramirez met with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, in Washington, D.C., and told him negotiations had begun.

"What the commissioner indicated to the congressman is that he has sent his position to his counterpart on the Mexican side, and he expects to hear back very soon," said Michael Harrison, an aide to Hunter. "It was pretty encouraging."

IBWC spokeswoman Sally Spener said Thursday that the U.S. State Department has authorized the commission to proceed, which will allow negotiations to begin. She said Ramirez met recently with his counterpart, Arturo Herrera Solis, and discussed the issue. Spener said they are awaiting the Mexican commissioner's response.

As for funding, no appropriation to implement the law has been made, she said.

Filner said he believes that if both sides really wanted to do it, negotiations could be done within days.

"What you have is a couple of bureaucrats who really don't want it to happen, so they do this dance that makes them look like they're doing something," Filner said. "But I'm not convinced they are."

The law was written by Filner and former Rep. Brian Bilbray of Imperial Beach. It calls for a waste-water treatment treaty between the two countries to be renegotiated to allow a private sewage treatment plant to be built in Tijuana.

Currently, the treaty requires cross-border sewage flows to be treated on the U.S. side, which is done at the International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Tijuana River Valley.

A group of American investors is proposing a project called Bajagua, which would build a plant in Mexico as part of a public-private partnership. The plant would treat the waste water to cleaner, secondary standards and seek to sell some of the reclaimed water for industrial use in Mexico.

"I think all the players in the game are now putting pressure on them to move forward," said Craig Benedetto, a spokesman for the Bajagua project, which stands to benefit most from the negotiations. "We're hopeful that there won't be any additional delays or new questions or issues brought up, and they'll stick with the intent of the public law."