San Diego — The US and Mexico have signed an settlement outlining particular steps and a brand new timetable to scrub up the longstanding drawback of the Tijuana River pouring sewage throughout the border and polluting California seashores, officers from each international locations introduced Thursday.
Billions of gallons of sewage and poisonous chemical compounds from Tijuana have polluted the Pacific Ocean off neighboring Southern California, closing seashores and sickening Navy SEALs who prepare within the water. That is regardless of a number of efforts and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} which were poured into addressing the issue over many years, together with underneath the primary Trump administration.
“There’s a nice dedication by the 2 international locations to strengthen cooperation,” Mexico’s Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena mentioned Thursday after assembly with Environmental Safety Company Administrator Lee Zeldin in Mexico Metropolis for the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
Raquel Cunha / REUTERS
The accord comes three months after Zeldin flew to San Diego to fulfill with Mexican officers and go to the border.
“I smelled what lots of residents locally lived by means of and must cope with,” he mentioned Thursday. “I noticed the degradation of the Tijuana River valley. I heard concerning the seashores that have been closed. I met with the Navy Seals, who’ve had their coaching impacted. It was a strong go to throughout for me.”
“The Trump Administration is proud to ship this large environmental and nationwide safety win for Individuals within the San Diego space who’ve been dwelling with this disgusting uncooked sewage flowing into their communities for a lot too lengthy,” Zeldin mentioned, based on CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV.
Gregory Bull / AP 
Underneath the settlement, Mexico will full its allocation of $93 million towards infrastructure tasks, together with adhering to a particular schedule for precedence tasks spanning by means of 2027.
The 120-mile-long Tijuana River runs close to the coast in Mexico and crosses into Southern California, the place it flows by means of Navy-owned land and out to the Pacific.
As Tijuana’s wastewater remedy crops have aged, its inhabitants and trade — together with the manufacturing crops, often called maquiladoras that make U.S. items – have boomed. On the similar time, there was a rise within the quantity of poisons which have made their approach into the river and into San Diego County – since 2018, greater than 100 billion gallons of uncooked sewage laden with industrial chemical compounds and trash.
The air pollution has sickened not solely swimmers, surfers and lifeguards but in addition schoolchildren, Border Patrol brokers and others who do not even go within the water. Scientists say the sewage is vaporized when it foams up and enters the air folks breathe.
California seashores close to the border have been closed as a rule over the previous 4 years.
Since 2020, greater than $653 million in funds have been allotted to deal with the problem, however the disaster has continued largely due to delays by the Mexican authorities, Zeldin has mentioned.
Zeldin mentioned this settlement elements in “inhabitants development, operation and upkeep prices, and different variables that might make this answer sturdy and long run.”
He praised the brand new administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took workplace final October, for its willingness to deal with the problem.
Sheinbaum mentioned earlier Thursday that her authorities would develop a wastewater remedy plant that would cut back the contamination reaching the coast.
“There are different actions that have been signed that we have now to finish, that we’ll get completed within the subsequent 12 months for your entire Tijuana sanitation system, for your entire metropolitan Tijuana space,” she mentioned.
Sheinbaum mentioned the US additionally has to make investments within the binational drawback.
Referring to a different settlement to ship extra water to the U.S. to scale back Mexico’s water debt within the Rio Grande, Sheinbaum mentioned the Tijuana River settlement “is an effective instance of how when our technical groups sit down, they’ll resolve an issue that appeared unsolvable.”
The U.S. has agreed to finish the growth of the South Bay Worldwide Wastewater Therapy Plant subsequent month. The settlement additionally stipulates that Mexico this 12 months divert 10 million gallons per day of handled sewage away from the shore.
