City to Treat Sewage Flows From Tijuana : Health: As a stopgap measure, the Point Loma treatment plant will handle up to 13 million gallons of sewage daily from Mexico. The city wants the U.S. to pick up the tab.

The San Diego City Council voted Monday to allow the treatment of up to 13 million gallons daily of Mexico’s sewage at the Point Loma treatment plant, formalizing an interim solution to the problem of waste flows from Tijuana.

The council’s action had been expected, but authorities said it was an important step in providing stopgap disposition of Tijuana River wastes until construction of an international treatment facility, which is slated to open in 1995 in the Tijuana River Valley area of San Diego.

However, city officials are still seeking federal assistance to offset the estimated $3.2 million annual costs of the sewage diversion, authorities said.

Because of growing health concerns, Gov. Pete Wilson declared a state of emergency last month in San Diego’s Tijuana River Valley area.

Raw sewage from Tijuana has been polluting farms, residences, wetlands and other areas in southern San Diego for decades, but, in recent years the issue has often surfaced as a major issue in U.S.-Mexico relations.

Moreover, residents who live near the foul-smelling flows have increasingly voiced concern about the area’s growing mosquito population and the possible transmission of diseases related to the spillage.

“This is a historical problem,” said Pete Silva, assistant deputy director with the city’s clean water program. “Maybe we are finally getting a handle on it.” Under the plan, the San Diego Metropolitan Sewage System--composed of San Diego and other area cities--will accept Mexican sewage through the so-called emergency connection, an inactive pipeline scheduled to be ready for renewed operation next month. The connection is designed to intercept flows from the Tijuana River, which courses northward from Tijuana to southern San Diego.

The river, which provides natural drainage for many Tijuana neighborhoods where sewage lines are non-existent or ineffective, carries more than 10 million gallons of pungent waste daily onto U.S. territory before emptying into coastal wetlands and the Pacific. San Diego officials say the pollution is an extreme health menance, creating a fertile breeding ground for infectious organisms, disease-bearing mosquitoes and other vermin.

The U.S. and Mexican governments have agreed to build an international treatment plant in San Diego to handle the Tijuana wastes, but it is not scheduled to be completed until 1995. Both governments are contributing to the almost $200-million cost of that plant.

But the question of payment for the temporary hookup remains a thorny one.

City officials have long maintained that the international nature of the problem dictates that the U.S. Treasury--not area taxpayers--should pick up the tab for the treatment. The Metropolitan Sewage System, known as Metro, consists of San Diego, Chula Vista, El Cajon and 13 other cities.

“On one hand, this is the right thing to do--it’s a real bad health issue,” Silva said of the temporary hookup. “But the dilemma for the city of San Diego is that Metro is being asked to subsidize what should be a federal responsibility.”

Under the current plan, San Diego-area officials will receive $860,000 in state funds to help offset the first-year costs of treatment. However, that is still less than one-third of the estimated $3.2 million in annual operational costs, according to a city manager’s report.

City officials plan to continue seeking federal money to finance the hookup, authorities said.

The emergency connection, which had been in operation since 1965, has not been utilized for 18 months, Silva said. It was used daily throughout the 1970s to treat Mexican sewage, Silva said. But, when the federal government cut appropriations in 1989, he said, the pipeline was shut.

“The problem has been that no one on the federal side would come up with the money,” Silva said.