Political Snafus Sour Plans for Tijuana Sewage Plant

SAN DIEGO —  For decades, millions of gallons of sewage have flowed across the border from Tijuana to San Diego, and for decades no one has done anything about it.

San Diego and Imperial Beach officials screamed about the sewage but called it an international issue. The state of California said Mexican sewage was a federal problem, and Washington said it was a Mexican problem.

Mexico promised to clean up the mess, but failed to do so.

Then last year, there was a sudden flurry of activity among U.S. lawmakers, who decided it was time to stop the pollution of border lands and beaches. Local, state and federal officials hammered out a plan to build a $60-million binational plant to treat Tijuana sewage in the United States, where it naturally flowed downhill, and presented the plan to Mexico.

Congress approved $32 million and California allocated $5 million for the plant, which the Americans believed--and still believe--was the best technical solution to the stubborn problem.

But that plant will not be built. Nor will the solution to the sewage problem be a binational one.

Mexico to Build It Alone

Instead, Mexico decided to build its own simpler, low-cost sewage treatment system on Mexican soil with Mexican funds--without the help of the United States.

U.S. technicians are skeptical that the Mexican plan will work. Thus, the money originally earmarked for a binational plant likely will be spent, instead, on a backup system in case the Mexican system fails.

“We’re right back to where we were for 30 years,” said Richard Reavis, border coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. “Mexico has said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it,’ and we said, ‘Hallelujah.’ I don’t know what makes this different.”

U.S. officials who are satisfied with the Mexican plan acknowledge that it is not ideal, but they say it is the only politically feasible solution. They note that this is the first time Mexico has agreed in writing to build any sewage treatment system.

Mexico signed the agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank this month, after the United States threatened to vote against a loan from the bank for a Tijuana waterworks project. The loan agreement states that the bank may cut off funds for the water project if Mexico fails to meet its commitment to build and maintain the sewage facilities.

Francisco Herrera, an aide to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), said: “There was no way, given the (budget-cutting) climate of Washington, and the time it takes to deal with Mexican and American officials, to insist on the binational plant as the only solution available.”

Some critics, however, say the U.S. strategy of tying the sewage facilities to the bank loan may have backfired, forcing Mexico to proceed quickly with its unilateral plan, rather than allowing time to negotiate a bilateral solution.

“We played hardball, assuming Mexico would say, ‘OK, we’ll talk about a binational plant.’ Instead, we forced them into something else we really didn’t want to see,” said an American source who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

These critics say U.S. officials were inflexible on the question of financing. They say the United States wanted Mexico to pay for half the binational plant but never tried to make the binational plant financially attractive to Mexico.

“Mexico is going to invest money in its sewage plant that might have been invested in a binational plant,” Reavis said. “The United States will invest at least as much money as it would have (spent) on a binational plant on a second-best solution. Someday, down the line, someone is going to look at this and say, ‘What happened?’

“In my mind, if it had been handled differently, Mexico would have agreed to the binational plant.”

Settling for Less

Carlos Graizbord, a Mexican urban planner with the Center for Northern Border Studies in Tijuana, said the two countries are settling for an “adequate” but less than optimum sewage system because officials from both sides never sat down together to design a joint plan. He said the United States simply presented its plan to Mexico.

“Imagine if I said, ‘Hey, I’m buying a Mercedes.’ You say, ‘Oh that’s great.’ And then I tell you you’re going to pay for half . . . because I am going to give you a ride to work,” he said.

Mexico responded by laying its own plan on the table.

Tijuana produces about 20 million gallons of sewage daily and has no sewage treatment facilities. American officials estimate that the volume of sewage will triple by 1995 because of population growth, increases in the numbers of homes connected to the sewer system and expansion of the city’s waterworks.

San Diego treats about 13 million gallons of Tijuana sewage daily at a city facility, but it needs the capacity for San Diego sewage. The rest of Tijuana’s sewage is dumped raw into the ocean and often pollutes the Imperial Beach waterfront.

Untreated waste and periodic sewage spills also have polluted the Tijuana River, which flows north into San Diego and west to Imperial Beach.

The plant proposed by the United States would have been located just north of the border across from Tijuana’s pumping station. It would have used sediment tanks to give the sewage a “primary” treatment. The material would then have been pumped back to Mexico.

U.S. technicians said their plan was preferable because it relied on gravity to collect the sewage and because they could oversee maintenance of the plant in the United States.

The plan was presented to Mexican officials last fall in Mexico City. According to Americans who attended the meeting, both sides agreed that the plan was “the best technical solution.” But Mexicans at the meeting said their technicians were divided over its merits.

Sounded Expensive to Mexico

The binational plant sounded expensive to build and operate, but Mexico was willing to consider it, according to a Mexican federal official who asked not to be identified. “We never said no.”

Neither did they say yes, American officials add.

In January, U.S. Ambassador John Gavin announced that the United States was losing patience with Mexico on the sewage issue, and he threatened to oppose the Inter-American Development Bank loan. Mexico then hastily called meetings with American officials in February in Tijuana and laid out its unilateral plan for a Mexican sewage treatment system.

“I feel Mexico was pushed to present its plan,” said a Mexican official who did not wish to be identified. He said Mexico could not possibly negotiate with the bank by offering to build a binational sewage plant when Mexico did not have an agreement with the United States for such a plant.

U.S. sources say it was politically unrealistic to expect Mexico to spend millions of dollars to build a sewage plant without creating jobs for Mexicans and using Mexican materials. In addition, they added, Mexico bristled at the image that it could not or would not handle its own sewage problem, and it decided to solve the problem on its own.

Mexican officials believe that their proposal is technically sound. The first stage calls for building a series of aeration ponds along the coast about four miles south of Tijuana. It will cost about $10 million and eventually will treat about 35 million gallons of sewage daily. After the wastewaters are aerated, they are to be chlorinated and then reclaimed for agriculture, although Mexico still has no specific plans for reclamation.

American Criticism

Skeptical U.S. technicians say Mexico wants to build the ponds on unstable landfill, which could settle, crack the ponds and send the sewage spewing into the ocean untreated. The sewage would have to be pumped to the plant over steep, rocky hills that are subject to slides during heavy rains.

American critics say Mexico does not plan to clean sludge out of the ponds for 12 years, which they believe is about 10 years too late, and they worry whether the Mexican government will maintain the ponds in the long run. The federal government builds sewage facilities, but then turns them over to states to operate.

Mexico’s sewage system proposal includes a second phase that calls for construction of another plant in eastern Tijuana at the juncture of the Alamar and Tijuana rivers. U.S. officials strongly oppose that plant, saying they do not want any water--treated or untreated--flowing into the Tijuana River and on into the United States.

No agreement has been reached yet on that phase, but Mexico says it has a right to pour treated wastewater into the river in Mexico.