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U.S. considers building sewage plant in Tijuana
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050814-9...
By Terry Rodgers
August 14, 2005
The federal government is negotiating with private investors to build a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana that would discharge treated wastewater from
Mexico through an outfall in the United States.
The project's secondary treatment plant in eastern Tijuana would also make reclaimed water available to maquiladora manufacturing plants in Mexico.
Negotiations between Bajagua, a U.S. company, and the International Boundary and Water Commission began after the public-private partnership was
designated the "preferred alternative" in a final environmental impact report published last month.
The preferred alternative calls for an unusual cross-border transfer of sewage that will require construction of pipelines and pump stations.
Raw sewage currently flows from Mexico into the United States via the Tijuana River, where it is intercepted at the U.S. government's plant, which has
a daily capacity of 25 million gallons.
Under the Bajagua plan, sewage partially treated at the U.S. plant, on the San Diego-Tijuana border, would be pumped 12.5 miles back into Mexico for
secondary treatment at a 59 million-gallon capacity plant along the Rio Alamar near Tijuana, then piped back to the United States and discharged
through the South Bay ocean outfall 3.5 miles offshore.
Effluent from the existing primary treatment plant, which has been operating since 1999, is toxic to marine life and doesn't comply with federal Clean
Water Act or California Ocean Plan standards. Under a court settlement, the commission must comply with environmental standards by Sept. 30, 2008.
State Assemblywoman Lori Salda?a, D-San Diego, questions the wisdom of contracting with a private U.S. company to complete a public works project in
Mexico. The public-private partnership doesn't have enough safeguards to ensure the sewer infrastructure will work as expected and be maintained
properly, she said. The project would be more suitable in collaboration with the North American Development Bank or Border Infrastructure Fund, she
said.
"This is not a financially sound way to do public projects," Salda?a said. "I don't see the merits of this from a financial, engineering or management
perspective."
Salda?a said she is further troubled that the federal government has agreed to negotiate a no-bid contract with Bajagua, which has spent $20 million
on feasibility studies, engineers and lobbyists to reach this point.
Although the federal government is negotiating with Bajagua as a sole-source contractor, competitive bids will be required for construction of the
project, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the commission.
Bajagua spokesman Craig Benedetto said concerns that profits will take priority over performance are unfounded. Bajagua, which intends to operate the
plant after it's built, won't be paid unless the treated sewage meets Clean Water Act standards, Benedetto said.
The proposed sewage treatment plant is planned for a 230-acre parcel near the eastern city limits of Tijuana at the confluence of Rio Alamar and Rio
Tijuana. The land is privately owned but under the control of the Mexican government, Benedetto said.
Bajagua is required to put up a 20 percent equity stake in the plant, an amount that could range from $20 million to $40 million, Benedetto said,
adding that Citibank has agreed to provide the construction loan. Construction is expected to take 18 months.
"It will be built in Mexico, where the problem is created in the first place, and it will be built with environmentally preferred technology and at a
capacity to meet the need," he said. "This is the only way to create this resource in an area that has a serious water deficit."
Bajagua will make money by billing the federal government for operating and maintaining the plant, plus any sales of reclaimed water.
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Public meeting
What: International Boundary and Water Commission will meet to discuss proposed construction of a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana.
When: 5:30 to 7 p.m. tomorrow.
Where: Imperial Beach Community Room, 825 Imperial Beach Blvd.
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Backlash for sewage treatment in Tijuana
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050817-9...
Leaders say plan has serious flaws
By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
August 17, 2005
Border water officials were harshly criticized this week by Imperial Beach council members and a state assemblywoman who said there were numerous
serious problems with a plan to build a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana.
The U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission met Monday in Imperial Beach to update the public on its selection of a private company, Bajagua,
as its preferred contractor to build a plant that would treat sewage from Tijuana then sell recycled wastewater for profit. Any unsold treated sewage
would be discharged from an existing outfall off of Imperial Beach.
The project's critics, including three Imperial Beach council members and state Assemblywoman Lori Salda?a, say it is wrong to give the contract to
Bajagua without asking for competitive bids.
In addition to the critics' insinuations that laws are being violated, the issue has been complicated by the recent firing of the water commission's
commissioner and by letters indicating that Mexican sewage officials are unhappy with the project.
Also, a woman who believes she might own the Mexican property where the new plant would be built said no one has even approached her about buying her
land; she read about the plan in the newspaper.
The water commission, based in El Paso, Texas, has authority over water issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. It operates the South Bay International
Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego County's Tijuana River Valley, which treats up to 25 million gallons a day of sewage from Tijuana to the
advanced primary level, then discharges it into the ocean off Imperial Beach.
The law requires the sewage to be processed to the cleaner secondary standard, and the water commission has been struggling for years to comply. The
commission is under a federal court order to have a secondary treatment plant operating by 2008.
However, even if the secondary treatment plant is successful, it will not solve the problem of raw sewage from homes without plumbing in Mexico
leaking into the U.S. from the Tijuana River and fouling the river valley, estuary and beaches, Imperial Beach Mayor Diane Rose said.
The Bajagua project was first introduced in 1998, but four heads of the agency have come and gone since then.
Less than two years ago, Commissioner Carlos Ramirez, who was accused by some of intentional inaction on the border sewage issue, resigned after being
diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease.
Last week the White House asked his replacement, Commissioner Arturo Duran, to resign in the wake of a U.S. State Department investigation that found
Duran's leadership had undermined the morale of the agency and led to the departure of numerous commission employees.
Rose complained that the commission had ignored the city's concerns about the Bajagua project and asked if the selection of Bajagua as the
commission's "preferred alternative" could be revisited when a new commissioner is appointed.
Imperial Beach Councilwoman Mayda Winter said it was hard to understand why Bajagua would even qualify for the project without competitive bidding.
"They stand to make a $250 million profit over 20 years," Winter said. "Couldn't a public agency just as well do it for a lot less?"
Bajagua would pay the design and construction costs to build the plant. Once it begins treating wastewater, if it meets state and federal clean-water
standards, the U.S. Congress is expected to make annual appropriations for the 20-year term of the contract that will eventually cover the cost of
construction, operations and maintenance, commission spokeswoman Sally Spener said.
The commission analysis puts the estimated cost of constructing the plant at $133.8 million, with annual operation and maintenance costs of $14.8
million.
"We're not going to get a $250 million check once we start treating the water," Bajagua spokesman Craig Benedetto said yesterday. "The benefit to the
taxpayer is simply this: They don't have to up-front the money, and the cost of construction will be paid in annual installments over 20 years," he
said.
"It would be less than the federal government" would spend to build the plant, Benedetto said.
Ana Nevarez, a San Diegan who inherited 6,500 acres in Tijuana from her father, said at the meeting she was worried because she saw the site for the
sewage plant depicted in The San Diego Union-Tribune, and it looked like her property.
Benedetto said that, to his knowledge, it is not the same land. A final site has not been selected, and acquisition of the property will have to be
negotiated with Mexico, he said.
At Monday's meeting, Salda?a distributed two letters sent to the water commission from its Mexican equivalent, the Comision Internacional de Limites y
Aguas, or CILA. The letters express the Mexican agency's concerns about the Bajagua project.
Salda?a said she obtained Mendoza's letters from water commission employees who wish to remain anonymous.
The letters, written in July by CILA's principal engineer, Luis Antonio Rasc?n Mendoza, asked the IBWC to not complete any documents without the
express consent of the Mexican agency. "The responsible Mexican authorities should have a decisive role in the approval of the different phases of the
project," from site selection to treatment technology, he wrote.
Though representatives from Bajagua were at the meeting, they did not speak to defend the project. Benedetto said that because the company is about to
commence sensitive negotiations with the IBWC, they didn't want to "get into a battle" with their critics.
"All Mexican laws need to be adhered to, we agree," Benedetto said. "Those concerns will be addressed in negotiations, absolutely."
Salda?a said she will hold a hearing Friday before the state Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, of which she is a member. She said she will
propose the project be managed through a binational technical committee.
"We're going to determine what actions the state needs to take," Salda?a said. "It is clear after 10 years the federal government is not moving
expeditiously to clear up the sanitation issues at the border."
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