Sewage Import Upsets Mexicali

Angry Mexicali officials want the Mexican government to end the import of processed sewage from the United States to fertilize crops.

“To allow Americans to dump their human waste on our territory is an insult and a threat to the health of our citizens,” Mexicali City Councilman Daniel Rivera Araujo said.

The officials are angry over a 5-acre field in Mexicali filled with compost from human waste, some of which enters the country as sewage sludge from San Diego. The compost is imported legally.

“This thing of importing human (waste) from the United States is an outrage. It exceeds the limits of tolerance,” Mexicali Mayor Milton Castellanos Gout told reporters earlier this week as he left for Mexico City, where he was to discuss the matter with federal officials.

He and other Mexicali officials want the importation of the compost and sludge stopped and the field cleared.

The owner of the field, Humberto Padilla, said the compost originates in the sludge released by the Point Loma sewage treatment plant.

The sewage is processed into compost at Chino Corona Farms in Thermal, Calif. Chino Corona has sold more than 1,000 tons in compost and sludge to Padilla’s firm, Organicos de Mexicali, since the company began importing the treated soil and sludge to Mexico 1 1/2 years ago.