Countywide

Construction will begin this month on a $200,000 “interceptor system” designed to trap runaway sewage flows from Mexico before they pollute the Tijuana River estuary on the U.S. side of the international border, officials announced Thursday.

The network of concrete culverts is designed to serve as a back-up for the new Tijuana sewage collection and treatment plant now under construction by the Mexican government, said county Supervisor Brian Bilbray.

The project will be funded by the federal government and built by the International Boundary and Water Commission, Bilbray said.

The first phase of the project will protect the areas known as Stewart’s Drain, Silva’s Drain and Canyon del Sol, near Monument Road, just on the U.S. side of the border. A later phase will protect areas known as Smuggler’s Gulch and Goat Canyon.

“This is one of the critical elements in the big picture,” Bilbray said. “This is a backup system so we have contingencies if they (Mexico) have problems.”

The project, known as a “return to sender” system, will send the collected wastewater back into the Tijuana sewage system or direct it to the San Diego sewage system for treatment.