By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) -The United States and Mexico on Thursday reached an agreement aimed at finding a permanent solution to a decades-long sewage crisis, in which Mexican sewage has flowed into the Tijuana River and across the U.S. border, emptying into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Mexican Environment Minister Alicia Barcena signed a memorandum of understanding in Mexico City, in which Mexico agreed to expedite the expenditure of $93 million worth of improvements to the Tijuana sewage system and commit to several projects to account for future population growth and maintenance.
Some of the Mexican projects would now be completed four years ahead of schedule, the EPA said.
The U.S. in turn committed to releasing funds that would complete the expansion of a sewage treatment plant by the end of August. The plant is on the U.S. side of the border but treats sewage pumped in from Mexico.
“This is a huge win for millions of Americans and Mexicans who have been calling on us to end this decades-old crisis,” Zeldin said in a statement.
Though both countries have long cooperated on water and sewage issues, the Tijuana sewage crisis, exacerbated by rapid growth in the border city and an underfunding of infrastructure projects, has often been a sore point.
The deal comes amid other cross-border tensions on matters including immigration, drug-trafficking and gun-running.
“I want to emphasize that what we are really doing is trying to solve, once and for all, the problem of wastewater in the Tijuana River. And I believe we are also doing it jointly, with both countries making commitments,” Barcena told a joint press conference with Zeldin.
Millions of gallons of treated and untreated sewage from Tijuana’s overburdened system makes its way daily into the Tijuana River and reaches the ocean in the San Diego suburb of Imperial Beach, which has posted “Keep out of Water” signs on its beach for much of the past four years, depriving surfers of waves and Imperial Beach of crucial summer tourism revenue.
The International Boundary and Water Commission, a body governed by U.S.-Mexican treaty agreements, has measured up to 50 million gallons per day (2,200 liters per second) of sewage-contaminated water from the Tijuana River toward Imperial Beach. Around half was raw sewage with the remainder a mix of treated sewage, groundwater and potable water from Tijuana’s leaky pipes, IBWC officials have said.
The IBWC operates the sewage treatment plant north of the border, which will increase its capacity to 35 million gallons per day, up from 25 million gallons per day, the EPA said. Every extra gallon treated is a gallon kept out of the ocean.
Barcena said Mexico also committed to doubling the capacity of the San Antonio de los Buenos sewage treatment plant, which was recently repaired after years of delay. Before the recent repairs, the plant 6 miles (10 km) south of the border had been spewing at least 23 million gallons of sewage per day (1,000 liters per second) into the Pacific Ocean, whose prevailing currents flow north much of the year, further fouling San Diego waters.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, Jasper Ward in Washington, and Brendan O’Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Diane Craft)
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