U.S., Mexican Officials to Discuss Plans for Sewage Plant at Tijuana

U.S. officials will get an idea this week of what Mexico plans for a sewage-treatment plant in Tijuana intended to alleviate border pollution and to improve the border city’s waste-disposal system.

U.S. and Mexican officials will meet Monday at Hotel Lucerna in Tijuana in the first of three sessions.

“This will be the first time that the Environmental Protection Agency or the State Department has seen the proposal that Mexico has formulated, and that is why this meeting is so important,” said Richard Reavis, the EPA coordinator in San Diego for border pollution problems.

Mexico requested three meetings this month on border sewage. The others tentatively are scheduled for Feb. 12 in Mexico City and Feb. 26 in San Diego.

Until recently, U.S. and San Diego officials said they thought that Mexico was evaluating its participation in the first phase of a $731-million joint treatment plant recommended for construction in the Tijuana River Valley in the United States.

U.S. officials learned last month that Mexico planned its own plant four miles south of the border as part of an expansion of the water and sewer systems in Tijuana.

Money for the plant was included in Mexico’s application to the Inter-American Development Bank for a $46-million loan to finance the expansion.

The United States, a major participant in the bank, said it would oppose the expansion until Mexican officials explain it. On Jan. 22, Mexico asked for the meetings.