SAN DIEGO – The International Boundary and Water Commission in the United States, together with Congressmen Juan Vargas and Scott Peters, announced the start of the rehabilitation and expansion of the wastewater treatment plant in San Ysidro.
The plant is expected to be fully rehabilitated in five years, which will require a total investment of $600 million. They recently received a $148 million grant from Congress.
“We are going to start at the end of this month, starting to move some things to prepare,” said Juan Vargas, federal congressman for district 52.
It is important to mention that in the last 12 years only $4 million dollars have been invested in this plant, which daily receives up to 40 million gallons of sewage discharges and thousands of tons of garbage and sludge, better known as sediment.
“The problem is that even with the volumes we are treating at the plant, there are additional volumes that reach the Tijuana River, which we cannot provide the necessary treatment for,” explained Sally E. Spener, IBWC Secretary of International Affairs.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, for her part, said that 20 months of design and five months of construction are unacceptable and stressed the importance of declaring a state of emergency at the state and federal level, a measure that is also supported by congressmen.
“I think that because everyone wants to work together and they think that if it is an emergency, then they say, well, it seems bad for Mexico, but well, it is not the opinion, it is the reality that right now things are very dangerous, it is an emergency, we must be more urgent about this,” added Juan Vargas.
TELEMUNDO 20 asked authorities if the repair of the San Ysidro and San Antonio de los Buenos treatment plants could help reopen beaches in Southern California in the short term.
“We aim to have the beaches open again by next summer, in order to eliminate these flows,” said Maria Elena Giner, head of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
A job that not only requires the repair of plants, but also a study to identify the sources of contaminated water flows that reach the river.
“These flows will be eliminated with the repairs to the collectors in Mexico and apart from being able to pump the water from the river to Punta Bandera (…) For us, the volumes of water that are now flowing in the dry season are unacceptable; they should be at zero,” added María Elena Giner.
Meanwhile, citizens will have to wait a few more months before being able to enjoy the beaches.
“We were waiting to go to the beach and no, it was closed,” said citizen Francisco Escobedo.
It should be noted that they are also in the process of beginning a study to predict the arrival of cross-border flows that cause pollution of beaches in the San Diego region.
