Submitted by Richard Bailey
Last week, Councilmember John Duncan and I, representing the city-appointed Cross-Border Sewage Subcommittee, traveled to Washington D.C., to advocate for and to help secure additional funding to address the sewage flowing from Mexico.
This year marks the eighth year the City of Coronado has engaged on this issue and one of the most common questions we receive is, “what’s taking so long?”
The frustration is understandable and shared by many especially when progress is largely not readily visible.
To help answer that question, the following is a timeline of events:
Prior to 2017, the City of Coronado was not engaged on this issue.
Beginning in 2017, Coronado formed a cross-border sewage subcommittee; the subcommittee members were former Councilmember Whitney Benzian and Mayor Richard Bailey. The subcommittee took a diplomatic approach to engage with the U.S. State Department, the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as many meetings with members of Congress.
Through these early meetings we started to find a path. This environmental issue was put on the USTR radar which was important because early discussions of an updated North American Free Trade Agreement were underway. The EPA agreed to analyze the issue to determine the causes of the cross-border pollution and quantify its impact. Members of Congress were learning about the issue and the IBWC for the very first time.
In 2018, after several months of study, the EPA released its evaluation of the issue and created a high-level plan through a suite of projects to reduce the number of cross-border sewage flow days by an estimated 90%.
In 2019, with a rough plan in place, the entire South Bay region, including former County Supervisor Greg Cox, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and former Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, began lobbying Congress to appropriate funding to start work on the plan.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was a lack of awareness. This issue impacts the most southwestern corner of the continental United States so most members were unfamiliar with the issue let alone the role of IBWC, which is a small footnote within the giant State Department, in addressing it.
In 2020, that early meeting we had with USTR in 2017, and subsequent ones after, paid off because the Trump Administration signed the USMCA trade agreement which included $300 million as a downpayment towards the total project cost of $600+ million.
In 2021, after the pandemic initially delayed progress, the EPA began its environmental review process of the detailed plans.
In 2022, it was realized that the EPA didn’t have the authority to transfer the $300M to the IBWC so we began more meetings to lobby Congress on this technical piece of legislation.
Later in 2022, the environmental review process for the EPA/IBWC projects finished and was subject to months of public review. Around this time, Mexico announced that it had appropriated approximately $150 million in funds to fix infrastructure on its side of the border. Also, we helped get the transfer authority legislation passed.
In 2023, Councilmember John Duncan petitioned the Coronado Council to reconstitute the City’s cross-border sewage committee which was previously left with just Mayor Bailey after Councilmember Benzian ended his term on the council.
In late 2023, the International Boundary and Water Commission was authorized to release the projects for bid. Several bids were submitted by qualified contractors and went through months of review.
In early 2024, Councilmember Duncan and Mayor Bailey made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to advocate the national importance of solving this issue to members of Congress of both parties in both chambers. This effort helped forge a bipartisan Congressional coalition led by Congressman Scott Peters of San Diego and Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas that lobbied the leadership of their respective political parties. In addition to increased funding, Congressman Darrell Issa of California pushed for accountability measures for the IBWC to ensure the tax dollars are spent effectively to solve the cross-border pollution issue once and for all.
That lobbying effort helped get $156M approved as part of the budget, which is in addition to the previous $300M appropriation from 2020, for the construction of the expanded South Bay treatment plant.
In August 2024, a contract was awarded for the design and construction of the IBWC wastewater treatment plant expansion and it was announced that Mexico would be turning on its newly renovated treatment plant in Q4 2024.
The cross-border sewage issue could have and should have been solved years ago. It took new leadership, bipartisan collaboration with colleagues across the bridge and in D.C., as well as the unwavering support of local officials, residents, and community groups throughout the region to make this issue a priority for the federal government and get it done.
I especially want to acknowledge our partners in Imperial Beach, including Mayor Paloma Aguirre and their City Council, as well as Congressman Scott Peters for their tireless efforts.
With contracts awarded and shovels in the ground on both sides of the border, I am more optimistic than ever before we will soon enjoy clean water for the South Bay region.
Richard Bailey
Coronado Mayor
