Union-Tribune Editorial

Stop stalling on Bajagua project
By Bill VanDeWeghe
January 24, 2002

For a moment try to imagine giving a federal agency more than $250 million to handle a sewage problem at the U.S./Mexican border. Years pass, and the agency spends all the money.

Although a plant is built, it is woefully inadequate. The treated sewage still fails toxicity tests, which means there continues to be a health risk for residents. And because the treated sewage fails the toxicity tests, the state of California begins to enforce the Clean Water Act and levies fines every single day for noncompliance against the federal agency. This is a bill that taxpayers may, unfortunately, end up paying.

In an attempt to clean up this mess, legislation is passed specifically providing a road map to rectify the problem. But the agency snubs its nose at this law and pursues its own plan.

Although this story sounds incredible, it's happening in our own back yard. The name of this renegade, tax-dollar supported agency is the International Boundary and Water Commission.

This problem has gotten so bad that last month elected officials from San Diego County were called to testify before a congressional subcommittee to force the IBWC to cooperate. That's right, we are at the point where we now have to round up these federal employees, fly them to Washington and lecture them about why they have to follow the law.

To understand just how flagrantly the IBWC has violated the letter of the law one first must have a short history lesson about the project. In 1990, when federal funds were first allocated, the project called for building an international advanced primary sewage treatment plant with conditional plans to also build a secondary treatment facility. This caveat was added to make certain the sewage was no longer a health risk when it was released offshore.

Then in 1994, environmentalists became upset and lawsuits were filed against the federal government. These lawsuits basically halted all plans for the next phase of the project, which was to build a traditional activated sludge secondary treatment facility nearby.

After much negotiating, the Environmental Protection Agency and the IBWC decided, on their own, that they would change entirely the direction of the project. The two federal agencies began promoting what some claimed was a more advanced and environmentally acceptable secondary sewage treatment technology. This technology called for large open-air sewage treatment ponds in the Tijuana River Valley.

Unfortunately, this proposal was in direct conflict with the goals and desires of most local and governmental community representatives. Once again, Congress was pressed into action for a solution. In 1999, a bipartisan approach by Reps. Brian Bilbray, R-Imperial Beach, and Bob Filner, D-San Diego, resulted in special legislation, which authorized the IBWC to begin negotiating with a U.S. corporation to build a secondary treatment plant in Mexico.

This plant, known as Bajagua, would have a much greater capacity than the IBWC's proposed project and would come with an additional promise of capturing recycled water to be used for industrial water supply in Mexico. This legislation called for the EPA and the IBWC to follow certain guidelines, which included negotiating with Mexican officials, to get this new project off the ground.

It is now a year later, and we are still no closer to solving this problem. Both the EPA and the IBWC claim they've been unable to sit down at the bargaining table with Mexico because officials there don't support the plan. But this is blatantly untrue. A Dec. 5, 2001 San Diego Union-Tribune article quoted Mexico's northern border commissioner, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, as saying "he supports the proposed Bajagua project and sees it as a positive way to solve the problem of raw sewage flowing from Tijuana into the United States."

During the last four months local and governmental representatives have tried to get the Bajagua project back on track by taking their case directly to newly appointed IBWC Commissioner Carlos Ramirez. However, once again, they have been stymied. Commission Ramirez has stated publicly he is not taking action on the Bajagua project because he doesn't feel there is local consensus.
How he can say this is beyond reason. The truth is that the entire San Diego congressional delegation is in favor of the guidelines specifically laid out in the latest legislation, which call for proceeding with the Bajagua project.

VanDeWeghe is a senior shareholder at the downtown law firm Klinedinst, Fliehman and McKillop. He is also running for the 53rd Congressional District.