Los Angeles Times

Sewage leak adds to pollution

Ruptured pipe in Mexico threatens to exacerbate U.S. beach contaminat­ion.

- JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH joshua.smith@sduniontri­bune.com Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

A spill Tijuana blames on a ruptured pipe could exacerbate beach contaminat­ion on U.S. side of the border.

SAN DIEGO — The equivalent of more than 6 million gallons of raw sewage a day has been spilling into the Tijuana River since Monday night, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. section of the Internatio­nal Boundary and Water Commission said Tuesday that counterpar­ts in Mexico informed the agency that the cause of the sewage leak was a ruptured collector pipe. Officials said the aging collector underwent millions of dollars in upgrades over the last year but is not fully rehabilita­ted.

“We are in close contact with Mexico,” said Lori Kuczmanski, spokeswoma­n for the boundary commission. “We have engineers in the field getting the details of the incident.”

Shorelines from Imperial Beach to Coronado have been closed for several days because of polluted water that flushed through the Tijuana River after recent rains, according to the San Diego County Department of Environmen­tal Health.

But this new spill could dramatical­ly exacerbate the situation.

“There’s communicat­ion from the IBWC, but Mexico should have let us know yesterday,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, who has called for an investigat­ion into when the spill occurred. “There’s no way that a pipe broke down three days after the flood. It seems suspicious.”

Beaches in San Diego County’s South Bay are routinely inundated with polluted water from Mexico, especially during rainstorms when pumps that suck water out of the Tijuana River must be turned off because of limited capacity. Wastewater is supposed to be treated before it’s emptied into the river, but flows are routinely mixed with other pollutants, including raw sewage from cracked pipes.

Residents are advised to stay out of the ocean 72 hours after it rains because of contaminat­ion from urban runoff, but sewage-tainted pollution is far more dangerous. Raw effluent can carry pathogens such as E. coli, vibrio and salmonella, as well as viruses and intestinal parasites that can cause ailments including diarrhea and meningitis.

In September, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra joined the cities of Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego in suing the Trump administra­tion over sewage spills and other toxic flows from Mexico.

The lawsuit seeks to force the federal government to upgrade the capacity of the pumps in the river as well as catch basins in nearby canyons. The systems are intended to divert flows to the South Bay Internatio­nal Wastewater Treatment Plant before they can foul beaches.

The state’s lawsuit focuses more narrowly on water pollution flowing through the canyons.

“This is exactly why we filed our lawsuit,” Dedina said. “We should have infrastruc­ture that can capture the sewage and send it back into the system.”

The federal government has said it isn’t legally responsibl­e for the renegade flows that escape its collection systems, pointing out that the situation would be far worse without its efforts.

Before the federal government spent about $344 million to create its diversion and treatment system in the 1990s, millions of gallons of sewage would flow daily down the Tijuana River into San Diego County.

For several years officials with the IBWC have attempted to work with officials in Baja to outline a spending blueprint for improving the region’s failing wastewater infrastruc­ture. But only limited progress has been made.

If this latest spill continues unabated, it could be the largest since February 2017, when a pipe burst and flooded the river with at least 28 million gallons of raw sewage, tainting coastal waters for weeks.

According to county records, the Imperial Beach shoreline is off-limits to swimmers about a third of the year on average as a result of water pollution from Tijuana.

 ?? Howard Lipin San Diego-Union-Tribune ?? IMPERIAL BEACH Mayor Serge Dedina surveys the aftermath of 6 million gallons of sewage that spilled into the Tijuana River Valley.
Howard Lipin San Diego-Union-Tribune IMPERIAL BEACH Mayor Serge Dedina surveys the aftermath of 6 million gallons of sewage that spilled into the Tijuana River Valley.

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