Border Sewage Bill Is Caught in Tug of War

As the two-year legislative session wound toward a climax Friday, lawmakers had sent Gov. George Deukmejian one bill dealing with pollution problems along the Mexican border and were expected to send him another today.

But the centerpiece of the border cleanup package--a $100-million to $150-million bond election authorization--was caught in an intense partisan tug-of-war as legislators met late into the night Friday and prepared to return for rare Saturday meetings.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), the Senate Republican Caucus chairman, said Friday he would not allow the so-called Tijuana sewage bonds bill to pass out of the Senate as long as a bill sought by the governor, to authorize a $150-million bond election for a statewide toxics cleanup effort, is “held hostage” in the Assembly.

For weeks, backers have been acknowledging that the border sewage cleanup bill by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) was in trouble and was tied to a package of five bond measures that failed passage as legislators began a monthlong recess in July.

In negotiations, legislative leaders and the Deukmejian administration had agreed to limit the bond authorization for border cleanup to $100 million. Backers also gave up all hope this week of winning legislative approval to hold the bond election in November.

Instead, they conceded they would have to move the long-sought election back to June, 1988, hoping the delay would win enough support among Assembly Republicans, who had vowed not to allow any further bond issues on the November ballot.

As the stalemate continued Friday, Brown’s press secretary, Susan Jetton, said he “still desperately wants that bill, . . . but there are other people involved.”

Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) said San Diego-area legislators will have “scored a victory” during the legislative session even if the Tijuana sewage bill fails.

“We’re getting the pollution control authority, and we’ve called statewide attention to the problem,” Peace said. “So, we are way ahead, even if we have to come back next year.”

The bond election was intended to provide money to build a sewage treatment facility in or near Tijuana and to take some immediate steps to clean up sewage and toxic contaminants that cascade into San Diego and Imperial County from Mexico.

A bill by Peace, which won final approval Thursday, would create the International Border Pollution Control Authority, an 11-member governing board that would be set up to plan and operate the sewage facilities the bond election would finance.

But with the bond election nearly two years away at best--and a $1.3-million appropriation that was going to set up the authority deleted from the bill--the role of the authority would be severely limited.

The panel will be able to do little more than look for other sources of money and seek voluntary assistance from American companies doing business in Mexicali. Many of the U.S. firms that operate across the border from communities in Imperial County are suspected of contributing heavily to pollution in the New River. The bill directs the authority to build fences to block access to the contaminated portions of the river.

Another bill by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), which would finance engineering plans for cleaning up the badly polluted New River, was expected to have little trouble winning final Senate approval today.

For years, waste water flowing from Tijuana and Mexicali, the two major population centers bordering California, has been a persistent problem for Southern California communities.

Since the mid-1960s, much of the sewage from Tijuana has been treated in the City of San Diego’s municipal treatment system, while millions of gallons of untreated sewage spills onto border-area beaches, rivers, farms and canyons.

Brown introduced his bill in February, 1985, saying the border contamination posed a major statewide health threat that California could not afford to ignore.