Mexico Seeks Meetings Over Sewage Spills

The Mexican government Tuesday proposed a series of meetings with U.S. officials next month to negotiate a solution to the Tijuana-San Diego sewage problem, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City disclosed.

Ambassador John Gavin called the proposal a positive reply to American concerns about the continuing flow of raw sewage across the border into San Diego, but he said the result must be “an adequate solution” leading to planning and design of a treatment plant soon after the final meeting.

Also Tuesday, in Sacramento, Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) announced plans to introduce legislation for a $50-million state-supported sewage treatment plant to clean up the border sewage mess.

David Takashima, principal assistant for Peace, said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown has agreed to support the bill, which also has enlisted the backing of two San Diego-area legislators: state Sen. Waddie Deddeh (D-Bonita) and Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego).

The legislators hope the state-funded sewage plant will encourage more financial support from the federal government and Mexican authorities, Takashima said.

The latest Mexican proposal came after Gavin and U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) earlier this month criticized the slow response of Mexico to the problem.

A spokesman for Wilson said Tuesday that the reply, while positive, is not definitive.

“It’s a decision to hold more meetings, and that’s a sign of cooperation,” Francisco Herrera, director of intergovernment affairs for Wilson, said here. “But we’ve been doing that for a long time.”

Another government official here involved in technical planning was more upbeat, saying the Mexican suggestion for more talks gives U.S. planners another chance to convince Mexico to participate in a binational plant along the border. The Mexicans have discussed locating a new facility in Tijuana away from the border.

“I was scared to death Mexico would propose its own plant (to Gavin) and that would make its position all but impossible to change,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “Now we can try to show them why our plan is more realistic.”

The meetings probably will be held in Tijuana, an embassy spokesman in Mexico City said, and will cover the location, size, financing and functioning of a plant.

Raw sewage from broken Tijuana pipelines has periodically run across the border for years into south San Diego along the Tijuana River basin, polluting low-lying farming areas in San Ysidro. The threat of health problems caused by the sewage flow has frequently forced the closure of beaches at Imperial Beach.

At present, Tijuana is unable to treat any of the close to 20 million gallons of raw sewage produced daily.

About 13 million gallons is pumped across the border to be treated under contract at San Diego’s Point Loma sewer plant. A series of pumping stations and pipelines is designed to carry the remaining waste into the Pacific Ocean about 5 1/2 miles south of the international border. However, frequent system breakdowns have resulted in as much as 4 million gallons a day pouring down canyons into San Diego from Tijuana, which is at a higher elevation.

The latest break occurred in December. It is expected to be fixed Thursday, leaving about 1 million gallons a day flowing into the Tijuana River channel through San Ysidro and Imperial Beach.

U.S. government environmental officials have endorsed construction of a binational plant, on the U.S. side and at the border, as the best permanent solution. The only procedure now available when pipelines break involves emergency holding ponds, which store part of the overflow until it can be pumped to Point Loma.

During November meetings with their technical counterparts in Mexico, there was tentative agreement to pursue the border plant proposal using the two-nation International Boundary and Water Commission as the agency to construct and operate the plant.

The proposed plant would be designed to initially handle 30 million to 40 million gallons of sewage daily, with expansion to 60 million gallons per day, based on the expectation that Tijuana would augment its sewer system during the next quarter-century. A smaller city plant, using local and state funds, would be designed to tie in with the international facility and handle wastes from San Diego industrial and residential development planned on Otay Mesa.

However, the Mexican government has not formally confirmed such participation, and it floated an alternative proposal during negotiations last fall between Mexico and the Inter-American Bank for a $46.4-million loan to construct new water distribution and sewer collection lines for Tijuana. When bank officials asked Mexican officials how they proposed to handle the additional waste, they proposed construction of a 50-million-gallon-per-day plant several miles south of the border.

The resulting confusion among U.S. officials over which solution Mexico would follow led them to threaten to vote against the loan during a bank meeting next Wednesday. Ambassador Gavin warned Mexican officials of that possibility unless they responded by Tuesday on moving forward with a mutually acceptable solution. Mexico has now delayed its loan request, it was reported Tuesday.

Environmental Protection Agency officials prefer a border location, fearing that continued pipeline breaks, despite a new plant south of the border, would continue to bring raw sewage into San Diego before it could reach any new Tijuana plant.

“It is the history of the system that leads us to believe that if Mexico builds something new but the pipes continue to follow the same topography across the gulches, there will continue to be breaks and raw sewage into San Diego,” Richard Reavis, border coordinator for the EPA in San Diego, said in an interview.

“If we put a plant right on the border, any pipeline breaks will occur after treatment and we will not have raw sewage, but treated waste flowing into the basin.” Also, the only flat land available for a border plant is on the U.S. side, he said.

Congress has appropriated $32 million for a 30-million-gallon-a-day plant, of which $5 million would be available immediately for design and engineering, contingent on the Mexican government agreeing to some financial participation in the plant.

The congressional intent is not to have the federal government totally fund the solution, said Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego).

Once agreement is reached with Mexico, the City of San Diego will attempt to gain more money for a larger plant. The cost ultimately could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We’d like at least an immediate $60 million,” said Scott Harvey, San Diego’s intergovernmental affairs director.

There is precedence for a facility run jointly by the two nations. The International Boundary and Water Commission operates a small sewer plant at Nogales, Ariz., treating sewage from Nogales, Mexico. The commission also runs a series of flood control dams along the Rio Grande, which separates Texas from Mexico.

However, the magnitude of the costs of the Tijuana problem dwarfs previous binational plans, according to State Department officials.

In addition, there is some resentment among Mexican officials about the way some U.S. representatives have characterized the problem, said Francisco Herrera of Wilson’s office.

“The Mexicans smart a bit when local politicians say the Mexicans don’t know what they’re doing and don’t have the proper engineering tools, etc.,” Herrera said. “It causes problems at the diplomatic level by raising the historical specter of the ‘gringo’ trying to impose a solution on Mexico.”

Further, Tijuana has always been viewed as “the backwater of San Diego, the butt of jokes, the second-class place, despite the fact that it is now a major city in Mexico and has enough in common with San Diego--geography, ocean, weather--to be a sister city.”

Congressman Bates said that U.S. officials run the risk of “patronizing Mexico by acting as big brother,” insisting on their solution and saying Mexico will never solve the problem on its own.

Bates said he will not support a plant capable of handling more than 30 million gallons a day--the present limit authorized by Congress--until he is convinced that it is needed for emergencies. “The present spills are a problem and what we have authorized will fix that,” he said.

Bates, who opposes development on Otay Mesa, fears that the City of San Diego is using the fear of Tijuana sewage overflows to hasten Otay sewer service, which is necessary before any construction can begin.

“I don’t want the two things commingled,” Bates said.

Reavis of the EPA said that the city would save some money by attaching its plant to the border facility, because it could share separation ponds and piping. But he said the savings would amount to no more than 10% of the total.

Times staff writer Scott Harris contributed to this story.