Submitted by Mike Ochoa
Candidate for San Diego City Council District 8, 2026
About a year ago, on May 23, 2025, I attended a public town hall meeting in San Ysidro focused on the ongoing sewage crisis affecting communities along the U.S.–Mexico border. Residents, local officials, and federal representatives gathered to discuss the health and environmental damage caused by decades of untreated sewage flowing through the Tijuana River Basin.
When I took the microphone, I raised concerns about the structural failures within the federal response and the lack of a clear engineering authority responsible for delivering a permanent solution. As I began discussing the international implications of the crisis and the need for stronger federal infrastructure leadership, officials moderating the meeting ultimately took the microphone away before I could finish my remarks.
That moment was revealing. It underscored what many residents in South Bay communities already felt — that the conversation surrounding the Tijuana River sewage crisis had become constrained by institutional caution rather than driven by urgency.
Only weeks earlier, leadership within the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission had changed when Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner resigned and William “Chad” McIntosh was appointed to lead the agency. The leadership transition reflected growing national attention to the issue and the need for stronger federal accountability.
For me, that moment at the town hall became a turning point.
I realized that simply raising concerns as a private citizen was no longer enough. If we are going to solve a crisis that affects public health, environmental protection, and international water policy, we need leaders willing to pursue structural solutions at every level of government.
That realization is one of the reasons I decided to run for San Diego City Council District 8.
For decades, the sewage crisis impacting communities such as San Ysidro, Nestor, Imperial Beach, and the greater South Bay region has often been described as a local environmental problem between San Diego and Tijuana or between California and Baja California.
But that description misses the larger reality.
The crisis in the Tijuana River watershed is fundamentally an international infrastructure failure between two sovereign nations — the United States and Mexico.
The watershed is governed under the 1944 Water Treaty and administered through the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), the binational body responsible for managing shared water infrastructure along the border.
Because the legal framework is international, the responsibility for solving the problem must also be addressed at the federal level by both governments.
Over the years, numerous engineering studies and infrastructure proposals have been developed. Significant planning work has already been completed by federal agencies and environmental experts. Yet progress toward a permanent solution has been slow.
One of the primary reasons is fragmented planning.
Today, responsibility for solving the crisis is divided among multiple agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has participated in engineering studies related to the watershed, the Corps has not been designated as the lead engineering authority responsible for delivering the full infrastructure solution.
Without a single entity accountable for completing the project, planning efforts have often resulted in overlapping studies, slow approvals, and delayed construction.
To address this structural problem, I propose a federal policy framework called the Border Clean Water Security Act.
Under this proposal, the United States would work with Mexico through a new treaty “Minute” adopted by the International Boundary and Water Commission. Treaty Minutes are formal binational agreements authorized under the 1944 treaty framework that allow both countries to approve new infrastructure initiatives and operational changes.
The purpose of this agreement would be to designate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the lead engineering and construction authority responsible for delivering the wastewater infrastructure improvements needed to address cross-border sewage flows affecting U.S. communities.
Under this structure, the Army Corps would oversee engineering design, infrastructure planning, construction management, and project delivery. The International Boundary and Water Commission would continue to serve as the binational body responsible for coordinating treaty obligations and diplomatic engagement with Mexico.
This approach preserves international cooperation while ensuring that world-class federal engineering capacity leads the effort to complete the infrastructure solution.
Importantly, this proposal does not restart the planning process. Extensive engineering work has already been completed. The goal is to build upon the work that already exists and accelerate the final stages of infrastructure delivery.
Within the first six months after the Army Corps assumes leadership, the agency would review and integrate existing engineering studies into a unified construction strategy. Within the first year, final engineering adjustments and permitting coordination would allow construction schedules to move forward.
From there, infrastructure upgrades could accelerate to expand wastewater treatment capacity beyond the current system and modernize facilities within the Tijuana River Basin.
The Tijuana River sewage crisis is also a reminder that border infrastructure is national infrastructure. Just as the federal government invests billions of dollars to modernize ports, highways, and water systems across the country, the environmental infrastructure protecting border communities must receive the same level of attention and accountability. When wastewater systems fail along an international watershed, the consequences are not confined to one city or one state — they affect public health, coastal ecosystems, and international relations between two nations.
The objective is not another decade of studies.
The objective is execution.
By centralizing engineering leadership under the Army Corps while maintaining the treaty coordination role of the International Boundary and Water Commission, the United States and Mexico can move from decades of fragmented planning to a coordinated infrastructure strategy capable of delivering a lasting solution.
Communities on both sides of the border deserve clean water, clean air, and a realistic timeline for resolving this long-standing environmental crisis.
The planning has already been done. What we need now is leadership to finish the job.
It amazes me how California pumps its chest out and says, “Look at me” we are the environmental gold standard as their beaches are closed due to fecal and other matter that has been soaking into the beaches and soils for decades, yet Newsome and all those that came before have literally done nothing, zip, nada, zilch and as I type raw sewage is splashing on the shores of IP and Coronado. Politicians and residents just ignore the problem and swim in it anyway. I plan on never going to CA again as I cannot swallow everything they produce. They are the blind leading the blind with the badge of arrogance to prove it. These comments are just my opinion, which I believe in CA they do not like opinions that do not share their ideals.