House Panel Adds $7 Million for Border Sewage Control

A House committee Monday added $7 million to the pool of funds earmarked for efforts to curb the pollution of the southern San Diego area by sewage from Tijuana.

The money is the latest attempt to address the decades-long problem of Mexican sewage, which has long poured into southern San Diego County, polluting beaches, farmland, pasture and sensitive wetlands.

The $7 million, authorized by the House Appropriations Committee, will be added to the $20 million that the panel set aside last year for the same purpose.

“This money puts us one step closer to staunching the flow” of Mexican sewage into the United States, said U. S. Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) who sits on the committee.

However, it is still far from definite what kind of facility will be built with the funds.

U. S. officials now hope to use the money for a proposed treatment plant, to be built with U. S. and Mexican funds just north of the U. S.-Mexico border. The plant, which U. S. authorities would like to see operational by 1992 or 1993, could theoretically treat sewage from both the United States and Mexico, depositing treated effluent into the ocean via a large pipe.

However, estimates of the cost of that facility are in the $200 million range, including a contribution from Mexico of about $20 million, as well as additional U. S. funds and other money from the the city of San Diego and the state of California.

But the Mexican government is still studying the proposal and has not formally signaled its intention to participate. Mexico’s approval is considered vital.