House Subcommittee OKs $27 Million for Pipe to Repel Tijuana Sewage

Local and federal officials Thursday claimed victory in their long effort to protect border regions from millions of gallons of raw Tijuana sewage when a key U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee agreed to appropriate $27 million toward construction of a “defensive sewer system” in South San Diego.

U.S. Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) predicted that the $27-million appropriation will meet no opposition as it proceeds through House and Senate appropriations committees, the full Congress and on to President Reagan’s office.

Once constructed, probably by July, 1990, the huge pipe and collector system will gather the 10- to 12-million gallons of “renegade” sewage that cascades downhill from Tijuana every day and return it to the other side of the border. It also could handle any sewage that flows into the United States in the event of a breakdown of a Tijuana pump station that processes much of that city’s sewage.

The appropriation also allows San Diego to collect $12.8 million in state financing for future expansion of the pipe, to handle sewage generated in the South Bay area, if the city decides to build a sewage treatment plant in the South Bay.

“I said I would get sewer money to San Diego and I have,” said a triumphant Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who made four appearances in Washington to lobby for the funds.

“It was crucial for San Diego to present a united front to the subcommittee in their request for this system,” added Lowery in a news release. “All members of the delegation, both senators and the mayor worked together for this goal and achieved it.”

The state money would have been lost without Thursday’s federal action because the grant program will convert to a loan program July 1, said Doug Byrns, O’Connor’s assistant chief of staff.

The raw sewage, which is carried over the border by the Tijuana River and flows down canyons from impoverished sections of Tijuana, has been blamed for fouling beaches as far north as Imperial Beach and Coronado and for damaging an environmentally sensitive waterfowl habitat. U.S. residents of the border region have been complaining about the pollution for more than 50 years.

Users of San Diego’s sewage treatment system will contribute $9.7 million toward the project.

The system’s exact design has not been settled, but plans call for either two 12,000-foot-long pipes of differing diameters or one 12,000-foot-long pipe that is 12 feet in diameter.

Either way, the system will be able to handle 310- to 340-million gallons of sewage each day by the year 2010--up to 100 million gallons from Mexico and the rest from the South Bay area.

Although it has not been decided whether to build a South San Diego treatment plant, most plans being considered for a secondary sewage treatment system, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the city to build, include a facility in South San Diego.

Some South San Diego community leaders are alarmed, suspecting that the city wants to build a plant large enough to treat the entire city’s waste.

District 8 Councilman Bob Filner, who represents South San Diego, supports building a small waste-treatment plant, to handle South Bay sewage, as part of a citywide system that would include facilities in other places, said Filner aide Allen Jones.