S.D. groups to sue feds over cross-border sewage
san diego union-tribune
SAN DIEGO — Two San Diego nonprofits have announced that they plan to file a lawsuit to compel the federal government to stop an overflow of Tijuana sewage that is wreaking havoc on local communities.
San Diego Coastkeeper and Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation on Thursday sent the International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, a notice of intent to sue, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act. At least 60 days’ notice is required before a lawsuit can be filed, per the Clean Water Act.
The IBWC oversees water treaties with Mexico and provides funding for infrastructure projects along the U.S.-Mexico border. It also operates the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Ysidro.
In their 24-page document, the nonprofits said the IBWC is liable for violations that include discharges of hazardous chemicals and taking more wastewater than it can handle, at hundreds of times the limit allowed under its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Authorized by the Clean Water Act, NPDES permits regulate discharges into federal waters.
The nonprofits also said the commission has failed to provide self-monitoring reports, “depriving the public of meaningful access to information about the treatment plant’s discharges.”
“IBWC’s continuous discharges of sewage and toxic chemicals are threatening public health, degrading the Tijuana estuary and our coastal waters and denying the people of Imperial Beach the right to live and recreate in a safe and clean environment,” Phillip Musegaas, Coastkeeper’s executive director, said in a statement.
The IBWC had not seen the letter as of Friday, Frank Fisher, the agency’s public affairs chief, said via email.
Thursday’s announcement comes five years after Imperial Beach sued the federal government for Clean Water Act offenses over transboundary pollution. Several local governments and agencies joined, including then-California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.
That lawsuit was settled in 2022. It led to $300 million in funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to double the capacity of the South Bay plant, part of a larger plan to better capture and treat wastewater.
Earlier this year, however, the IBWC acknowledged that the federal monies would fall short because of the plant’s deferred maintenance. The costs of repairs and expansion have ballooned from an estimated $600 million to $900 million, the commission says.
With pressure from local and state officials, President Biden is asking Congress to grant an additional $310 million in emergency spending to fix the infrastructure.
The goal, Musegaas said, is to have a federal judge issue an order to the IBWC “that sets a strict schedule to fix the plant and comply with the permit.”
IBWC officials agreed to improve efforts to monitor and prevent sewage from spilling into San Diego following the earlier settlement. However, during routine monitoring, the commission reported 360 violations of the NPDES permit since October 2020, most of them for exceeding the limit of 25 million gallons per day that should enter the South Bay plant.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees the IBWC’s Clean Water Act permit, issued a notice of violation in February 2021 after the commission’s self-reporting. The board ordered the commission to produce a list of shortcomings and maintenance issues that needed to be addressed to attain compliance.
The October 2022 report listed more than 20 issues that the IBWC said it had mostly resolved, including replacing influent pumps and completing designs for long-term projects.
Since then, however, heavy rainstorms have exacerbated the plant’s vulnerabilities, causing additional damages in the millions of dollars.
IBWC officials have said this year at local and state public hearings that despite the hardships, they are progressing with plans to remedy the sewage crisis. The latest effort: soliciting for the design and construction of the wastewater plant’s rehabilitation and expansion.
Under an agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, known as Minute 328, the South Bay Plant will have to double its intake to 50 million gallons of wastewater per day, and Mexico will have to build a new treatment plant and replace aging sewer lines and pump stations in Tijuana to reduce untreated flows by 90 percent.