SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — After nearly eight months of delays, malfunctions and redesigns, the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant partially came online recently and has begun treating raw sewage that comes from the city of Tijuana.
The facility, built near the coast about 6 miles south of the border, is still not operating at full capacity.
Mexican officials say they are still conducting tests and going through the certification process before the plant can be geared up to treat 18 million gallons of raw sewage per day — its maximum capacity.
Despite going into partial service, communities north of the border, where much of that sewage ends up, have seen little to no relief.
Beach closures in Imperial Beach and the city of Coronado to the north, remain in effect. In Imperial Beach, beaches have been off limits for more than three years.
“It’s been 1,400 consecutive days,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre. “We just had Memorial Day weekend and likely we’ll go through Labor Day weekend and our entire summer we’ll continue to have, sadly, our beaches closed,”
Aguirre says the sewage in the water continues to have a negative impact on her city, especially small businesses that depend on visitors.
“It’s impacting the bottom line of mom-and-pop shops in Imperial Beach that depend on coastal tourism,” she said. “It’s impacting our hotels, we’re seeing a reduction in visitors.”
Aguirre told Border Report the plant south of the border is only part of the solution, not the entire answer to reopening the coastline in her city.
She says the answer is to continue working with Mexico, which has made big strides and investment to fix and rebuild its dilapidated wastewater infrastructure.
“At the end of the day, Mexico is a sovereign nation, there’s leverage and mechanisms where we can create pressure, and there’s mechanisms and vehicles of collaboration and cooperation.”
Aguirre the situation requires the White House to declare a state of emergency, which would immediately jump start many projects, including the diversion of the Tijuana River that would mitigate the sewage and pollution crisis in her city, the Tijuana River Valley and the region.
“The Tijuana River has to be diverted, without that nothing will stop the concentrated industrial waste, wastewater, human waste, remnants of drugs being aerosolized into the air we breathe and waters we swim.”
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