March 26, 2024
March 26, 2024
There was some speculation from San Diego Democrats that Republican Rep. Darrell Issa would woo his GOP counterparts into stalling the funding if he wasn’t satisfied with explanations about why the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment plant had fallen into such disrepair. But the $103 million increase to the International Boundary and Water Commission’s budget – the federal agency that manages the plant and other water infrastructure at the border – passed both houses in the $1.2 trillion government spending bill early Saturday morning.
“Just as the IBWC requires new and additional funding, it also requires new and additional transparency and accountability,” read a written statement from Issa on Friday. “Today is an important step, and I’ll continue to work closely with my colleagues in the San Diego delegation and leaders throughout the region — we all have the same goal here.”
Background: Voice of San Diego first broke the news that the South Bay plant – which treats sewage from the city of Tijuana so it doesn’t spill into San Diego – had fallen into disrepair and couldn’t treat the sewage that it discharges into the ocean to Clean Water Act standards. The revelation threatened to stall a bold and expensive plan to double the South Bay plant’s treatment capacity and prevent polluted beach closures in San Diego.
Traditionally, the IBWC is funded through acts of Congress. Some language passed in the spending bill changes that. Now the IBWC can receive money from, say, the state of California or the city of San Diego or nonprofits to give money to the agency.
“This amount, it’s tripling their budget,” Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, told Voice of San Diego on Friday. He praised the IBWC’s leader, Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner appointed by President Joe Biden, for bringing the plant’s crumbling state to light. Giner shared recently that the water infrastructure along the 1,255-mile border that her agency manages needs upwards of $1 billion in repairs, but it only has a $50 million construction budget to do the work.
“She’s been relentless in keeping all stakeholders as informed as possible and making case for urgency for these needed upgrades,” Padilla said.
In a statement last week, Giner said the IBWC expects to award a contract this summer for the rehabilitation of the plant. The plant needs to be repaired to a certain extent before a much-anticipated expansion of the plant’s capacity to treat double the sewage than it was built to handle from money Congress granted the region in 2020 through a trade deal.
Various other leaders including Democrat Rep. Scott Peters applauded the delegation’s accomplishment. The $103 million doesn’t cover the total need at the plant. But it’ll help make emergency repairs and get it up and running enough to begin work to expand its capacity.
“While this is not a ‘mission accomplished’ moment or the end of my work to ensure these hazardous pollutants no longer endanger San Diegans, this is enough money to keep us on track to break ground this year and proceed toward doubling the plant’s capacity,” Peters said in a statement last week.
