Bates Labels ‘Big Pipe’ Plan ‘Big Mistake’

Calling Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s proposed $35-million “big pipe” project to collect Mexican sewage and dump it back across the border “a big mistake,” Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) on Friday offered what he said is a cheaper alternative: building two smaller pipes for $5 million less.

“The big pipe is a big mistake,” he said. “Maureen’s folly is what they’re calling it in the South Bay.”

The San Diego City Council last week gave conceptual approval to the massive, $35-million concrete pipe that would run along a two-mile stretch of the border, diverting to Mexico raw sewage that flows into the United States via the Tijuana River. The council also certified an environmental review of the proposal. San Diego’s mayor has been the chief backer of the 12-foot-diameter conduit nicknamed the “big pipe.”

In a letter sent Thursday to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which will review his $30 million proposal, Bates offered a two-pipe alternative: a 96-inch-diameter “defensive” pipe designed to capture Tijuana’s overflow, and 102-inch-diameter conduit that would run alongside the other and would “accommodate San Diego’s sewage needs.”

Congress has allocated $12 million for the “big pipe” project, but an additional $13 million in federal funds can only be received from a Clean Water Act grant if the city applies by July 1.

The federal grants are not available after that date as anything but a loan. City officials have said the plan would have to be abandoned in that case.

Bates has argued against the size of the pipe, saying it would be used to justify the construction of an international sewage treatment plant in the South Bay, a fear held by many area residents and politicians.

In the letter, Bates calls the San Diego/Tijuana sewage problem a “most vexing issue” and said the proposed pipeline “will eventually be connected to a giant international treatment plant and a giant ocean outfall” in the South Bay.

“It seems to me that mixing treated and untreated sewage from Mexico in the same pipe as the San Diego region’s sewage is a big mistake,” he wrote.

Bates said the estimated average bill for San Diego ratepayers would rise from $100 a year to over $600 a year. Bates said his plan, which he designed himself with the help of the EPA, would raise sewer rates to about $200 to $300.