By Deborah Brennan, CalMatters
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Authorities charged with cleaning up Tijuana River pollution should finish upgrades to wastewater plants on both sides of the border, fund operations as well as construction of those facilities, and plan for eventual wastewater reuse, a report issued today recommended.
Those are some key suggestions of the report “Tijuana River Contamination Crisis: A Five-Pillar Framework for Binational Solutions,” released today by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Prebys Foundation. Maria Elena Giner, former Commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Doug Liden, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official, authored the report.
“For far too long the Tijuana River contamination crisis has been discussed in fragments,” Chris Cate, president and CEO, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce said at a press conference on the report, held at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve Wednesday. “What’s been missing is a comprehensive binational roadmap that connects the problem to clear, coordinated, and accountable action.”
The report offers an overview of how the cross-border river became one of the most polluted waterways in the country, recent efforts to fix that, and what’s still needed to clean it up.
“It identifies the root causes: chronic infrastructure failures, insufficient operations and maintenance, and fragmented binational governance,” Caid said.
The Tijuana River watershed covers about 1,750 square miles, with nearly three-quarters of its area in Mexico and one quarter in the United States, according to the report. It’s mostly concrete-lined on the Mexican side, but sprawls through natural floodplains and wetlands within the Tijuana River Valley on the U.S. side.
The U.S. and Mexico have managed it jointly through the International Boundary and Water Commission since 1944. The North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. EPA Border Water Infrastructure Program and U.S. investment in Mexico helped pay for wastewater treatment, according to the report.
But wastewater capacity hasn’t kept pace with population growth in Tijuana, and deferred maintenance and deteriorating facilities led to “recurring failures and accelerated transboundary flows since 2016, eroding much of the progress achieved through prior binational efforts.”
Over the past decade sewage pollution from the Tijuana River has plagued Imperial Beach, Coronado and other parts of southern San Diego County, sickening swimmers and surfers, forcing beach closures and endangering Navy SEALs training in Coronado. The river also emits airborne toxins including foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, which causes breathing problems and other ailments in neighboring communities.
The Prebys Foundation supported research by the San Diego State University School of Public Health to understand the pollution problem and how it affects the health and the well-being of residents, said Emily Young, vice president of programs for the Prebys Foundation.
“What they discovered was far worse than we really understood, and that it’s not just an issue along the coastline, it’s an issue across South County with both the air and the water,” she said.
In addition to contaminating ocean water, the river emits airborne toxins including foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, which causes breathing problems and other ailments in neighboring communities.
Pathogens including fecal coliforms, E. coli, enterococci, and viruses cause gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin illnesses, the report stated. Water testing also found high levels of industrial metals including copper, nickel, and zinc.
“The Tijuana River Valley crisis is not just an environmental issue, it is a public health issue,” said Chris Howard, president and CEO, Sharp Healthcare. “For years, untreated sewage flowing across the border has contaminated our water, our air, and our coastline. Communities in the South Bay have lived with beach closures, foul odors, and exposure to harmful bacteria and toxins. ”
The river’s deteriorating condition harms businesses, families and youth programs, including outdoor and ocean recreation, speakers said.
“When the ocean becomes something children associate with contamination and crisis, instead of wonder and connection, it undermines the very work that we’re trying to do,” said Courtney Baltiyskyy, a facilitator for the Tijuana River Coalition.
Meanwhile, 75% of Tijuana’s wastewater network and half of its pump stations need urgent repairs. Its population is projected to grow 40% by 2050, and demands for drinking water outpace interest in wastewater treatment, the report stated.
Infrastructure on the U.S. side was also crumbling. The South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant suffered from decades of deferred maintenance with more than a third of the facility in critical condition in 2022, the report stated.
The lack of consistent operations and maintenance funding, “resulted in a recurring cycle of system failures—where urgent fixes only occur following major operational disruptions” it stated.
To correct those failures, the U.S. and Mexico must stick with plans laid out in a series of treaties, or Minutes, agreed to through the International Boundary and Water Commission, the authors urged. They spell out how the two countries should cooperate to manage the river and how to expand the capacity of wastewater facilities to control sewage and other pollutants.
The U.S. needs to maintain pressure on its neighbor to share the cost and responsibility for those upgrades, speakers said.
“Infrastructure improvements in Tijuana have to be undertaken and prioritized by the Mexican government,” Young said.
Besides those investments, the U.S. must commit annual funding to maintenance and operations of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant. The International Boundary and Water Commission should consider a tiered fee structure that penalizes Mexican facilities for wastewater discharged to the Tijuana River and offer lower charges for flows that are properly conveyed, the authors recommended.
“We want to make sure that that infrastructure is well maintained, because if it becomes dilapidated, if it falls back into disrepair, we’re going to be in the same situation all over again, and we can’t let that happen,” Cait said. “What we are advocating for is to ensure that we’re not consistently fighting for appropriations.”
While rainy weather increases flows of the river, the worst pollution occurs during dry conditions, so “eliminating dry-weather flows provides the greatest benefits at the lowest cost,” the report noted.
Rather than simply managing runoff, facilities should clean it up to usable condition. “Wastewater reuse must remain the highest priority for future infrastructure,” the report stated.
The report recommends creating a binational technical board that would supplement the work of the International Boundary and Water Commission, consisting of scientists, engineers and infrastructure experts, Cait said.
And it urged transparency and public information, calling for a “joint binational communication strategy,” improving real-time monitoring and beach reports, and holding an annual “State of the River Forum.”
“This is about public health,” Cait said. “It’s about protecting our businesses and our workforce. It is about economic resilience. And it’s about protecting one of the world’s most dynamic binational regions.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
