Plant to Stop Pollution From Mexico Funded

The Inter-American Development Bank in Washington Wednesday approved a $46.4-million loan to Mexico that includes an agreement by Mexico to build a sewage treatment system in Tijuana.

Construction of the plant is aimed at halting the periodic pollution of Southern California farmland and beaches by sewage from Mexico. But a federal official expressed fears Wednesday that the new system will fail to prevent breakdowns that would send even more Tijuana sewage across the border.

Tijuana generates almost 20 million gallons of sewage daily and has no treatment system. San Diego treats about 13 million gallons of Tijuana sewage daily under an emergency agreement, and the rest of the raw effluent is dumped into the ocean. However, frequent pipeline breaks have resulted in the escape of sewage into the Tijuana River, where it pollutes property on both sides of the border, including beaches in southern San Diego County.

The loan, which will be used to expand Tijuana’s drinking water system, would be “a giant step toward decreasing, and perhaps eliminating, a long-standing threat to the environment and public health” of Californians, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said shortly before the unanimous vote by the bank board.

The United States and Mexico had delayed a vote on the loan for five weeks while the two sides negotiated over the sewage issue. Fearing that the new waterworks project eventually will produce twice as much sewage in Tijuana, U.S. officials had threatened to vote against Mexico unless the loan addressed the sewage problem.

The loan agreement includes stipulations that Mexico will:

- Build a sewage treatment plant in western Tijuana within two years.

- Conduct an environmental impact study on the effects that a second sewage treatment plant could have on the Tijuana River. Mexico has proposed building a treatment plant within five years in eastern Tijuana at the juncture of the Alamar and Tijuana rivers.

- Submit, within 12 months of the effective date of the loan, plans for the design and construction of the eastern Tijuana plant.

- Operate and maintain the treatment facilities.

“The Mexicans have offered a number of assurances in their project that we feel are important to it being carried out effectively,” said George High, director of Mexican affairs for the State Department. “For that reason we voted for it. We’re very appreciative of the steps they’ve taken.”