CaboRon
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TJ Wastwater Solution
Officials at border hail wastewater diversion system
Mexico's discharges won't flow into U.S.
By Sandra Dibble
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. August 4, 2009
TIJUANA — Two new water treatment plants in eastern Tijuana have been praised as critical for some of the city's newest neighborhoods. But they also
created a binational problem: How to keep the treated discharge from flowing across the border and harming a federally protected U.S. wetland?
Yesterday, authorities celebrated the solution – a computerized system of pumps and pipes designed to keep the treated water inside Mexican territory
and deliver it to the Pacific Ocean miles south of the border at Punta Bandera.
Authorities from Mexico and the United States gathered amid tubes, pools and motors of Pump Station No. 1, a 40-year-old structure near the border
fence that is now an important part of the project to divert the treated water from the United States. Officials said the solution highlighted their
interdependence as they address issues in the Tijuana River watershed that spans the border.
"This is a model that we must follow in terms of cooperation between our two countries," Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán said. The
state and the Mexican federal government are sharing the $5.3 million cost.
For years, cross-border sewage spills from Tijuana into San Diego County led to beach closings north of the border. While dry-weather sewage spills
have largely been eradicated, wet-weather flows have continued to lead to closures.
With a combined capacity of 20 million gallons per day, the Arturo Herrera and La Morita treatment plants are key to relieving Tijuana's overburdened
main facility at Punta Bandera. Arturo Herrera began operating in March; La Morita is to open later this year.
But without the diversion system, their discharges would flow into the Tijuana River channel, potentially devastating the Tijuana River National
Estuarine Research Reserve in Imperial Beach. The federally protected wetland is a saltwater marsh vulnerable to freshwater flows.
Oscar Romo, coastal training director at the estuary, said the estuary's ecosystem has already been altered by some freshwater intrusion from canyons
near the border. But the new system will avoid further intrusion and "would probably relieve some of those changes," Romo said.
The new system, set to begin operating later this year, involves two parallel pipes. One will carry the treated flow to be released directly into the
ocean. The second will carry wastewater for treatment at Punta Bandera. Currently all the water, treated and untreated, is sent in a single pipe to
Punta Bandera.
By separating the treated water and sending it directly to the ocean, the strain on the Punta Bandera plant should be reduced.
By installing the new system, Baja California authorities are complying with a U.S.-Mexico treaty requiring that dry-weather flows not cross the
border. That is necessary to obtain funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has spent nearly $40 million on sewage infrastructure
projects in Tijuana and Rosarito Beach.
"If they were sending water across, this would be a violation of the . . . treaty," said Doug Liden, an environmental engineer with the EPA in San
Diego.
Osuna said Baja California officials eventually hope to pipe the treated water to the Valle de Guadalupe, the state's main grape-growing region, for
irrigation.
"I hope that the efforts at cooperation with treated water and sewage collection systems and the environment could be achieved with public security,
for contraband, weapons and cash," Osuna said.
[Edited on 8-6-2009 by CaboRon]
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woody with a view
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we pay $40 million so mexico's toilet flushes 5 miles farther away? i wonder what the price tag would look like if they pumped it to rosarito? or
ensenada? i'll bet trump is not too happy to hear this..... oh yeah, he moved out already!
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k-rico
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More good news about infrastructure improvements and US/Mexico cooperation in the border area. Glad to see it. Thanks Ron.
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Dave
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How is this 'good news'???
| Quote: | Originally posted by k-rico
More good news about infrastructure improvements and US/Mexico cooperation in the border area. Glad to see it. Thanks Ron. |
There will now be double the outflow at Punta Bandera. Treated sewage pumped from TJ and discharge from the plant.
If you haven't seen or smelled what TJ considers treated sewage, You're in for a treat. 
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DENNIS
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Maybe they should convert the system to "Toilet to Tap." Wouldn't that be yummy?
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CaboRon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Dave
| Quote: | Originally posted by k-rico
More good news about infrastructure improvements and US/Mexico cooperation in the border area. Glad to see it. Thanks Ron. |
There will now be double the outflow at Punta Bandera. Treated sewage pumped from TJ and discharge from the plant.
If you haven't seen or smelled what TJ considers treated sewage, You're in for a treat. |
Better Punta Bandera than Imperial Beach 
It is, after all , Mexican schiss ...
[Edited on 8-5-2009 by CaboRon]
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Martyman
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It hardly fecal matters
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k-rico
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Location: Playas de Tijuana
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Dave
| Quote: | Originally posted by k-rico
More good news about infrastructure improvements and US/Mexico cooperation in the border area. Glad to see it. Thanks Ron. |
There will now be double the outflow at Punta Bandera. Treated sewage pumped from TJ and discharge from the plant.
If you haven't seen or smelled what TJ considers treated sewage, You're in for a treat. |
I see your point. I've driven through the little community at Punta Bandera and it does stink. They need to build an outfall like the one in Point
Loma (long pipe out far and deep).
But this will keep "fresh" water out of the Tijuana estuary.
It's progress in the right direction.
[Edited on 8-6-2009 by k-rico]
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bajaguy
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Uh....... Punta Banda and Punta Bandero are two seperate and different places........
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