Union-Tribune Editorial

Sewage plans raising a stink in South Bay
Feds say treatment ponds must be built

June 24, 2000
By Leslie Wolf Branscomb

Federal engineers are forging ahead with plans to fill 36 acres in the Tijuana River Valley with open-air sewage treatment ponds, spending millions of dollars in the process despite the fact that the ponds may never be built.

The government maintains that the $45 million project to take already-treated Mexican sewage and bring it to even higher environmental standards will, and must, proceed.

But they can't shake the angry criticism of residents who fear odors and mosquitos will rise from the six ponds, or the sworn promise of a local congressman to block funding for the project.

"If people from the area don't want money spent on it, I don't think Congress is going to spend money on it, when there are so many other things to spend it on," Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, said this week.

Filner has co-authored legislation, which he hopes will pass this summer, that could move the treatment facilities across the border into Mexico. The legislation would open the door for Bajagua, a sewage treatment facility proposed by a group of American investors, which so far has faced an uphill battle.

The existing International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which went into operation in 1998 just north of the border, captures sewage from Mexico flowing into the United States via the Tijuana River. That sewage is treated to the advanced primary level -- which means, among other standards, removal of 75 percent of solids.

For the first few months the plant was in operation, the treated sewage was piped north to San Diego's Point Loma outfall. In January 1999, a new ocean outfall 3.5 miles off the Imperial Beach shore went into operation, and the treated Mexican sewage began flowing through it.

Ocean currents and waves dissipate most of the effluent, but it is far from perfectly clean. Since the outfall began operating, the effluent emanating from it has consistently failed tests for acute toxicity. The culprit may be industrial detergents and pesticides used in Mexico, but the city of San Diego scientists who take the water samples aren't sure.

The Environmental Protection Agency maintains, however, that upping the treatment to the more demanding secondary level will probably solve the problem.

To the federal agencies given the task of building the ponds, their job is clear-cut, despite the detractors.

"We just need to finish this," said Environmental Protection Agency engineer Wendi Shafir, placing her hands firmly on the table for emphasis.

"Federal and state standards require secondary treatment," said Shafir at a recent community meeting in Nestor, a few miles from the proposed sewage ponds. "We want to get the best treatment possible. The advanced primary plant is working as well as we can expect . . . but it is not cleaning this water adequately."

Mexican sewage flowing into the United States has been a problem since Tijuana started growing in the 1930s. The governments of both countries have grappled with the problem for decades.

A 1990 treaty between the two countries led to the construction of the international treatment plant. The treaty calls for the border plant, which is operated by the International Boundary and Water Commission, to treat up to 25 million gallons per day of Mexican sewage to secondary treatment standards. So far, the sewage has only been treated at the less-stringent advanced primary level.

Many critics, however, maintain that treating 25 million gallons a day is not enough, because Tijuana is already producing an estimated 50 million gallons of sewage per day, and any secondary treatment facilities will be outdated as soon as they are built.

Imperial Beach officials feel no time should be wasted on further debate. The coastal city's beaches are often closed due to sewage contamination, mostly from so-called "renegade" flows that don't make it into the treatment plant and end up fouling the beach at the mouth of the Tijuana River.

While they acknowledge the renegade flows are their main problem, Imperial Beach officials still want the sewage ponds built as soon as possible.

At a meeting in May with Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Imperial Beach, Councilwoman Patricia McCoy slammed her fists on the table and demanded, "We're asking you to give us the ponds, give us treatment in Mexico, give us everything you can because we want it and we want it now!"

Bilbray, a native of Imperial Beach, tried to placate the City Council with promises that he would talk to members of the relevant congressional committees to see if funding could be obtained to have the ponds built.

Congress originally set a spending cap on the whole border sewage project of $239.5 million, and almost all of that has been used by construction of the international plant and outfall. The Environmental Protection Agency has enough money to design the ponds but needs an additional $35 million for construction.

Bilbray cautioned that persuading Congress to fund the project wouldn't be easy, particularly with Filner against it. Bilbray also expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the secondary treatment ponds. "If we spend this much money, is the beach going to be any less polluted?" he asked. "I don't know if I can say that right now."

Earlier this month, representatives of the IBWC and EPA held a public meeting to present the design work done so far for the ponds. The ponds would be on the site of a former dairy, between the existing International Wastewater Treatment Plant and a $145 million water reclamation plant currently being built by the city of San Diego.

(When finished, the water reclamation plant would treat waste water from South San Diego, San Ysidro and Chula Vista so it could be reused for irrigation and landscaping.)

The secondary treatment plans call for sewage that has already gone through advanced primary treatment to sit in the ponds, where sludge would settle to the bottom and beneficial bacteria would be introduced to consume the pollutants.

Barbara Bradley, an engineer with CH2MHill, the engineering firm hired to design the ponds, said odor would be kept to a minimum because the surface of the ponds would be aerated, or kept continually bubbling. The agitation of the water would also keep mosquitoes at bay.

But the skeptics were not convinced.

Several in the audience pointed out that the IBWC report's colorful maps omitted the new 499-home Coral Gate development, less than half a mile east of the pond site. Existing homes in Mexico are even closer, just a few hundred feet to the south.

Bradley finally conceded, "It's very difficult to create any kind of waste-water treatment plant without some odor."

Despite the federal agencies' determination to finish their controversial task, some doubt it will ever happen.

"I think it's a dead issue, and they're trying very hard to put a good face on it," said Art Letter, general manager of the Tia Juana Valley County Water District. "The key to the whole thing is whether (Congress) is going to lift the cap or not, and if they don't, it's going to force everybody to look for a more long-term solution."