Border sewage plant delayed

San Diego Union Tribune

By Mike Lee

May 10, 2007

A major effort to improve treatment of Tijuana sewage has stalled at the U.S. agency that is under orders to upgrade its faulty wastewater plant in San Ysidro.

The International Boundary and Water Commission said in letters made public yesterday that it is “suspending all activities” related to the $600 million project pushed by Bajagua LLC of San Marcos.

The company aims to build a wastewater treatment facility in Mexico that would treat 59 million gallons of wastewater a day from the boundary commission's existing plant in San Ysidro, as well as other sewage from Mexico. Bajagua then would sell that reclaimed water to businesses in the Tijuana area. Bajagua would privately finance the construction, but U.S. taxpayers ultimately would pay for the facility and its operation over two decades.

Boundary commission chief Carlos Marin said that “a number of tasks remain to be accomplished” and that Bajagua would be unable to get the treatment operation running by a court-set deadline of Sept. 30, 2008. He said the company needed five more months.

In a letter Tuesday to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, Marin outlined progress on the project but said his agency won't do any more work on it until a federal judge considers a deadline extension. He added that the commission also was looking at upgrading the San Ysidro plant instead of pursuing the Bajagua project.

Marin's letter was the first public comment his agency has made on Bajagua since May 2, which it set as the deadline for several pieces of the project to be in place. One such milestone – a signed construction contract – remains months away.

Bajagua representatives said yesterday that they still are pushing to get the facility running on time, and that they will keep working on the project at their own risk. Over more than a decade, they have invested millions of dollars in consultants, lobbyists and other costs.

"For someone now to say we should stop (and) consider another project is the height of irresponsibility and ignorance," said Gary Sirota, a Bajagua lawyer.

Bajagua's opponents have complained for years about the company's lobbying efforts, and they question how much benefit the project would provide. They said yesterday that pushing back the construction deadline would only make a decades-old problem worse.

“Any request for delay opens the door for delay after delay,” said Imperial Beach Councilwoman Mayda Winter.

In 2001, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board took the unusual step of suing the boundary commission because the San Ysidro plant failed to meet water quality standards. Sewage regularly fouls ocean water in the area.

Last year, federal Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz rejected the water board's request to start fining the commission to compel it to meet deadlines.

Since then, the boundary commission has continued to fall behind, increasing the likelihood that Moskowitz will step back into the dispute. In his order in June, the judge said he would entertain the idea of shutting down the existing treatment plant – an option no one likes – or ordering the commission to formulate another plan.

“It cannot continue to discharge in violation of the law,” Moskowitz said.

Regional water board members took public testimony about Bajagua at a regular meeting yesterday, and they also discussed the issue in a closed session. The boundary commission declined to send anyone to the meeting, saying it preferred to talk during a formal “meet-and-confer” process outlined by the court.

The parties are expected to talk in coming weeks, although both agencies are keeping their strategies private.

“We look forward to cleaner water as soon as possible and that's about as much as I can say,” said Susan Ritschel, regional board chairwoman.

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