U.S., Mexico Sign Pact for Sewage Plant

U.S. and Mexican officials Monday signed a historic pact calling for the construction of a $200-million, binational sewage-treatment plant along the border to solve the decades-old problem of raw sewage from Tijuana flowing into San Diego.

The accord, which was approved by authorities of both nations during a meeting in El Paso, Tex., is viewed as the culmination of years of often-exasperating attempts to resolve the dilemma of how to deal with the huge volume of sewage that daily flows northward from Tijuana to Southern California.

On a broader scale, the pact is also the latest example of the growing cooperation of U.S. and Mexican authorities on a range of environmental problems that plague the almost-2,000-mile border region, from pesticide runoffs into the Rio Grande to smelter emissions in the Arizona-Sonora area to the dumping of U.S. toxic wastes in Baja California. The presidents of both nations have signed many accords in recent years pledging joint efforts to improve the much-abused border environment.

“This is a historic event,” said Francisco Herrera, senior policy adviser to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) who has worked on the thorny international sewage issue for years.

The planned project would represent the third binational sewage-treatment initiative along the U.S.-Mexico border. A plant now treats wastes from Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, and a planned jointly-funded plant will treat Mexican sewage in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

The problem of Tijuana’s runaway raw sewage, which has fouled coastline, farms, horse ranches and other land in San Diego for half a century, has inflamed passions on both sides of the international line and has frequently strained relations between the two nations. The so-called “renegade” flows originate in residential areas of the fast-growing Mexican border city--where pipelines are generally inadequate or non-existent--and flow into the Tijuana River, which drains on the U.S. side of the border.

The agreement is the product of years of often-tortuous negotiations between officials from respective cities and capitals--Washington and Mexico City, San Diego and Tijuana, Sacramento and Mexicali. Complicating the talks were issues of international sovereignty and Mexico’s precarious financial standing and limited ability to invest in a high-technology project.

The proposed new plant, which is not expected to be operational until late 1994 or 1995, would exclusively treat Mexican sewage, although it would be manned by U.S. and Mexican personnel. Waste effluent, cleansed to U.S. standards, then would be discharged into the Pacific via a huge outfall--the so-called “Big Pipe”--that would extend from the coastline for several miles.

San Diego officials are considering building a separate facility alongside the international plant. The city effluent, although treated separately, would also be dispatched through the ocean outfall.

The proposal still faces major hurdles, notably funding obstacles and an environmental impact statement. The planned site of the plant, expected to be near Dairy Mart Road, just north of the border, and the outfall are not far from a wetlands habitat that is protected by federal law.

Area officials hope that U.S. authorities will pick up about half of the almost $200-million cost of the project, but only about $14 million has been set aside to date. According to earlier estimates, Mexico is expected to pitch in about $41 million--$21 million for pipeline construction in Tijuana and $20 million for the plant. California and San Diego are expected to provide most of the balance.

The accord was signed Monday in the El Paso offices of the International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational body that mediates border matters between the United States and Mexico.

Penning their names to the official agreement, or “minute,” as it is know, were the U.S. commissioner, Narendra, N. Gunaji, and his Mexican counterpart, J. Arturo Herrera Solis, said Bob Ybarra, a spokesman for the U.S. commissioner.

Commission officials declined to release specifics contained in the pact. Details of the accord are to be forthcoming Friday during a scheduled ceremony in San Diego that is to be attended by officials from both nations, Ybarra said.

However, much of what is included in the document has already been discussed and debated publicly.

The signing of the international pact on Monday, although a landmark, had been expected since last month, when U.S. officials announced their approval of a preliminary agreement that had already been hammered out with Mexico. The action Monday represented the formal adoption of that plan.