The Biden administration has set aside $310 million to expand a wastewater treatment in South Bay as part of an ongoing effort to tackle a cross-border pollution and sewage crisis.
The South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant was included in the emergency supplemental funding request at the request of a group of lawmakers led by Rep. Scott Peters last month.
However, Rep. Peters emphasized that the fate of the funds remains uncertain. “Make no mistake, this is not a ‘mission accomplished’ moment,” he said in a statement. “This funding will need to be approved by both chambers of Congress, which remains an uphill battle, and I am already working to ensure we have the votes to get it across the finish line.”
State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said that repeated sewage spills have “devastated” the San Diego coastline. “In recent years, these closures have increased in length and have been worsened by the flooding rains from Hillary and last winter’s storms,” she said. “This is a crisis and I’m glad to see it treated with urgency.”
Pollution and raw sewage flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border has heightened public concern, which led to supervisors on voting on Sept. 13 to continue a state of emergency for the region.
County officials said that since last December, “an alarming 35 billion gallons” have flowed north into U.S. territory from the sewage treatment plant in Punta Bandera, Mexico, affecting the San Diego coastline during the summer.
Earlier this month, the county Air Pollution Control District announced that it was installing sensors in the valley, after residents reported odor from sewage spills into the river.
Meanwhile, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 on Tuesday in favor of dredging drainage channels and building a basin for sediment and trash control in the Smuggler’s Gulch and Pilot channels.
The Smuggler’s Gulch channel enters the United States from Mexico and runs north until it crosses the Pilot Channel and flows into the Tijuana River and finally to the Pacific Ocean.
That funding comes from a $4.25 million grant from the state Water Resources Control Board for dredging and channel work and $750,000 from the county’s 2023-24 fiscal year budget to maintain Smuggler’s Gulch.