Tijuana Suffers Sewage Plant Woes : Shutdown Stirs Debate on Mexico’s Handling of Problem

A breakdown of this city’s highly touted new sewage-treatment system has led to renewed doubts about Mexico’s ability to handle Tijuana’s ever-expanding volume of waste without polluting sea and land here and in the United States.

Mexican officials recently acknowledged that the $20-million plant--perhaps Mexico’s most visible commitment to battle the problem of border pollution--has been shut down since Oct. 26 because of major leaks from two of the three large holding ponds where raw sewage is collected and treated. Authorities were said to be working on sealing the leaks last week, but there was no official word on when the plant might reopen.

On the U.S. side, experts who follow the issue closely projected that it will be some time--at least six months, according to two informed estimates--before the plant is once again treating sewage.

“It’s not going to be a matter of days or weeks before Mexico gets this back into operation,” said Richard Reavis, border coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Diego. “It’s going to be a fairly long process.”

Meanwhile, the plant breakdown means that 20 million gallons of untreated sewage is being discharged daily into the Pacific Ocean 5.6 miles south of the border, raising the possibility of additional pollution of beaches on both sides of the border. As a result of the discharge, San Diego County authorities have resumed daily testing of sea-water quality north of the border.

“Any sewage in an environment where there’s body contact is bad,” noted John Melbourn, a public health engineer with San Diego County.

The plant’s problems have once again focused debate on Mexico’s ability to treat the huge volumes of sewage generated in Tijuana, a city of more than 1 million residents. Critics have long questioned Mexico’s ability to handle Tijuana’s wastes, citing the nation’s limited financial resources and the comparatively embryonic environmental movement south of the border. The border sewage problem has been debated for decades in San Diego.

“There’s no question that some people are now saying, ‘I told you so,’ ” said an official on the U.S. side who, like most others, asked that his name not be used, fearing that his comments would be construed negatively in Mexico.

For years, experts skeptical about Mexico’s capabilities have called for construction of a massive, binational treatment plant to be built at the border. However, such a facility’s staggering cost--approaching $500 million, according to some estimates--have scared off officials on both sides of the border.

Whether Mexico’s latest problems will renew the call for such a large-scale facility remains to be seen.

“We have to get to a point where, out of frustration, or out of concern for public health, the Mexicans and the United States must get together and decide that we have to have a joint treatment facility,” said one U.S. proponent of such a project.

Others say such an approach is chimerical, as the construction of such a plant is extremely unlikely.

“People who think we can build one grandiose project and be completely rid of the problem are very naive,” said Brian Bilbray, a San Diego County supervisor who, as the former mayor of Imperial Beach, has long been involved with the problem. “This is an issue we’re going to have to work on and work on for the next 20 years.”

More Immediate Problem

The sewage-plant breakdown in Tijuana poses a more immediate problem.

Officials said that the breakdown has not been definitively ruled out as a source of pollution that contributed to a recent northward extension of the long-term beach quarantine at Imperial Beach--the first such extension in more than three years. Officials acknowledge that runoff from recent rains was the more likely culprit. However, the runoff itself is teeming with sewage that, for years, has entered southern San Diego County from Mexico via the Tijuana River and various border canyons.

Moreover, a northward current, though unusual, could quickly move the spilled sewage toward San Diego’s beaches.

Beyond the breakdown of Tijuana’s sewage plant, other questions remain about the treatment situation south of the border.

Mexico has apparently delayed construction of a sister plant that was slated to be built alongside the now-disabled facility; the sister plant was expected to be operational by next year. And the future of yet another proposed treatment facility on the city’s fast-growing east side still remains murky.

The additional treatment capacity is considered crucial because current treatment demand nearly exceeds the limits of the existing facility. Currently, Tijuana generates about 23 million gallons of sewage daily; that is also the approximate capacity of the treatment plant. The city--and the demands on its sewage system--are growing rapidly.

“There’s no question that the demand is going to outstrip the capacity of that plant,” said Frank Collins, district administrator for U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado), who has been active in the border sewage issue.

The shutdown of the Tijuana facility comes less than a year after President Miguel de la Madrid personally presided over the inauguration of the plant. Last January’s opening was accompanied by much pomp and ceremony; Mexican officials stressed that they had fulfilled their international “commitment” to act on the decades-old border sewage problem.

In fact, the plant is probably Mexico’s most high-profile action aimed at combatting the thorny problem of pollution along the U.S.-Mexico frontier. Polluted air and water show no respect for international boundaries. Thus, Tijuana sewage despoils San Diego County beaches, smelter emissions from Arizona and Texas make landfall in Mexico, and pesticides from both sides of the border taint the Rio Grande.

In January, Mexican officials went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that U.S. officials and foreign journalists attended the opening ceremonies at the new plant. Among other things, free transportation was provided to and from the border.

Things are much different now. Mexican officials have been generally unavailable for comment on the plant’s latest problems; a guard at the facility entrance turns away visitors without official permission. Arturo Guerrero, chief engineer at the Tijuana plant for Mexico’s Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology, did not return several telephone messages left at his office last week.

Mexican authorities have been in touch with the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational agency that deals with border issues. However, Robert Ybarra, the secretary for the commission’s U.S. section in El Paso, could offer few additional details.

“Mexico has assured us that they will take the corrective measures” to repair the plant, Ybarra said.

The 25-acre treatment plant is situated in rugged hillside terrain overlooking the Pacific, about four miles south of the border. At its core are three large lagoons, where wastes are collected and infused with oxygen. The oxygen helps to break down solids and otherwise purify the waste material. After several days of such treatment, the treated wastes are discharged into the ocean.

The plant has been at least partially operational since January, although it has apparently never processed a maximum amount of wastes.

The leakage involves the walls of two of the three waste-treatment lagoons. The leakage has caused a gap 20 feet long and 125 feet wide in an embankment adjoining one lagoon, according to one knowledgeable U.S. official.

While the project was being designed, U.S. experts had urged Mexican officials to seal the lagoons with clay or some other material to prevent leakage. The suggestion was rejected, apparently because of the cost, officials said.

U.S. officials also questioned the difficulty of building and maintaining the lagoons in the rough Baja California terrain. Flat terrain was deemed more appropriate.

“We knew all along that there was an Achilles’ heel--the unlined ponds,” noted Supervisor Bilbray, who flew over the plant in a helicopter last weekend.

“I think at this point we’ve got to give Mexico its due, and acknowledge that they’re spending more time and money on the issue than they’ve ever spent. . . . I think they can fix this. It’s a question of resolve.”