US and Mexico to sign agreement over transborder sewage

  • US and Mexico to sign agreement over transborder sewage

    Posted by BajaBundo on August 18, 2022 at 7:23 am

    IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. — The U.S. and Mexico are expected to take a big step forward in the fight to cross-border sewage spills.

    A signing ceremony is expected to take place Thursday at the Tijuana Estuary. Representatives from both sides of the border are expected to come together to tackle cross-border pollution.

    It’s been an ongoing issue for residents of Imperial Beach who have suffered through several beach closures due to sewage spills from Mexico. The latest closure occurred just two weeks ago after two pipes broke in Tijuana.

    “I just think it’s really sad because I think it’s so unfortunate that we live in this beautiful place and we can’t use the beach,” resident Adeair Rosche said.

    Imperial Beach looks beautiful, but residents say they don’t dare go into the water.

    “We don’t go in the water. It looks nice. It’s a beautiful scenery, but I don’t trust the health of that water at all,” resident John Rosche said.

    Mexico is expected to sign an agreement to combat the problem. The agreement includes plans to rebuild the wastewater infrastructure system along the San Diego /Tijuana border and finance projects to stem the flow of transborder pollution.

    “I’m happy to hear that they’re finally taking some steps towards some action to fix the problem,” Adeair Rosche said.

    Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, International Boundary Water Commission, U.S. Navy, Congress, and Local Government are expected to unveil the plans at the signing ceremony Thursday.

    “I’m happy to see that there’s going to be some progress,” John Rosche said.

    Others remain skeptical.

    “I’ll watch but if nothing happens, I’m not going to be surprised,” resident Grace Sepulveda said.

    The ceremony is expected to take place at 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

    https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/us-mexico-to-sign-agreement-to-tackle-transborder-sewage-spill-pollution/

    https://youtu.be/DOCq3QZQqaE

    FishFinder replied 2 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • FishFinder

    Member
    August 18, 2022 at 11:28 am

    Hopefully they actually follow through this time. There have been several proposals and agreements in the past but for whatever reason, the plans never left the drawing board. The last time I believe it was because the GOP controlled House refused to authorize the spending bill to include this work.

    • amandae

      Member
      August 19, 2022 at 10:35 am

      Why I am I not surprised?

  • screeski

    Member
    August 19, 2022 at 7:53 am

    The long term fix to this is not just spending a lot of money to build the needed infrastructure but the long term commitment to maintain it and keep it working. We’ll see how that works out but I’m not holding my breath.

    Well, actually if I am in the IB area I will. ☹

    • BajaBundo

      Member
      August 19, 2022 at 8:34 am

      Completely agree and residents of Imperial Beach understand that too, explaining their resistance to getting too excited over this announcement. If the drought situation weren’t so severe as it is right now, Colorado River water might have been a good bargaining chip to sweeten the pot for Mexico to step up but right now there’s so little water moving down the canyon there simply isn’t much left to negotiate with. So it’s just going to require us to fork over a lot of money.

  • DuckDive

    Member
    September 10, 2022 at 6:24 pm
  • BajaBundo

    Member
    September 10, 2022 at 6:39 pm

    To be fair, storm drain runoff up much of the California coastline triggers a lot beach closures, not just the TJ River.

  • FishFinder

    Member
    September 11, 2022 at 6:10 am

    That’s true, but with the Tijuana River it doesn’t need a storm event to get triggered.

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