Good Signs for Solution to Border Sewage Spills

The meeting between Mexican and American officials in Tijuana last week produced the first favorable signs that the decades-old border sewage problem might be solved in the reasonably near future.

For the first time, Mexico offered a detailed plan to deal with the problem of untreated Mexican sewage flowing into the United States or being dumped into the Pacific Ocean and washing ashore on American beaches. Mexico proposes building within the next year a sewage treatment plant four miles south of Tijuana that would handle as much as 50 million gallons of sewage a day. A second plant that would handle 25 million gallons a day would be built in the next five years at the junction of the Tijuana and Alamar rivers.

This is a counterproposal to the joint U.S.-Mexico plant suggested by American officials last fall. While the U.S. delegation did not break into wild celebration at the Mexican proposal, they clearly were impressed by the detailed work that went into the plan.

Mexico proposes to build the first and larger plant near the highway running from Tijuana to Rosarito Beach. The estimated $6 million cost of the plant would save Mexican officials a considerable amount compared to the $25 million or more that U.S. officials would want them to pay as their share of a border plant. It’s not surprising that the Mexicans would prefer to save that money and have the money they spend pumped into the Mexican economy rather into ours.

Of continuing concern to the Americans is the reliability of the proposed Mexican system. To get to the treatment plant south of Tijuana, sewage would have to be pumped over a large hill. If the sewage pipes should break, as they did last year when they accidentally were dynamited by a work crew, the untreated effluent would flow downhill across the border as it has in the past.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico John Gavin may have spurred Mexico to call the current series of meetings by saying the United States might oppose a $46-million Inter-American Development Bank loan to Mexico for construction of a waterworks in Tijuana. Gavin said the waterworks would double the volume of Tijuana sewage at the border.

But American officials at the recent Tijuana meeting said they believe Mexico is genuinely interested in solving the sewage problem. Both sides should build on the good will created by the impressive Mexican proposal and begin in the meetings Tuesday and Feb. 26 to negotiate an agreement that will end this problem, which has closed beaches and created health hazards in both countries.

Rep. Duncan Hunter has said that if the Tijuana treatment plant is to be built in Mexico, the United States should construct a backup system north of the border to collect sewage and prevent it from flowing into San Diego County in case of a break in the Mexican pipes. That seems like a worthy idea to pursue. When sewage now flows over the border, it is in quantities of 2 million to 4 million gallons a day. Once all of Tijuana is attached to the new sewage system, a break in the lines could send north as much as 40 million gallons a day.

Combination of a Mexican treatment plant with an emergency U.S. system would offer protection to American property owners while at the same time letting Mexico solve its sewage problem in its own way.