President Joe Biden is requesting about $100 billion in disaster relief funding to support projects across the country – including the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis.
The Biden administration submitted the package to Congress this week, which would allocate funding to address natural disasters, infrastructure, agricultural loss, and more.
Included in the proposal is $310 million for upgrades to the South Bay International Treatment Plant.
“President Biden continues to support the funds we need to end this environmental catastrophe because he knows the public health is at risk,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, whose district includes Coronado, in a statement. “This crisis has polluted San Diego’s waters, poisoned the health of its citizens, and endangered our local economy, and we must pass this emergency funding now to ensure San Diegans no longer endure this injustice.”
The package’s most hefty allocation, if approved, would be $40 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund. The fund was originally allocated $20 billion for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
FEMA spent almost half of that in the first eight days of the fiscal year – after Hurricane Helene hit, but before Hurricane Milton did.
The news prompted rumors that FEMA would be unable to assist those impacted by Hurricane Milton. In turn, the agency published an entry on its Hurricane Rumor Response page saying that this was untrue. However, leaders have been calling for additional FEMA funding since.
“2024 has been a year of records,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell during press remarks on Nov. 18. “Hurricane Beryl became the earliest Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic. Hurricane Helene has devastated six states. We saw the second busiest spring tornado season ever recorded, and we’ve seen overall a 50% increase in disaster activity—for example, in 2023 we had 114 disaster declarations, and as of today, in 2024, we’ve had 172.”
Criswell said that FEMA has been in Immediate Needs Funding (INF) status since Aug. 7, in which the agency deprioritizes some projects to save its funding for immediate, life-saving and life-sustaining requirements. Since then, she said, FEMA has delayed obligations to more than 3,000 projects totaling $8.8 billion.
She gave some examples: delaying setting up a temporary high school in Wynne County, Ark., after the permanent school was destroyed in a tornado last year; delaying repairs of communication infrastructure in the US Virgin Islands that was damaged during Hurricane Maria; and delaying bridge repair, flood control, and public buildings projects.
Biden’s $100 billion funding package also includes money for the Department of Transportation to address infrastructure projects, the Department of Agriculture to assist farmers experiencing crop and livestock losses, and funding for the Small Business Administration to provide loans to businesses owners facing disaster-related losses.
And, of course, it includes money to rehabilitate the international wastewater treatment plant that is, in part, to blame for the millions of gallons of untreated wastewater that is dumped into the Pacific Ocean daily.
Rehabilitating and expanding the treatment plant is underway, and unprecedented funding has been allocated in recent years to the International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees the plant.
The full project cost, including design, construction, contingencies, project management, and other support services, is estimated at $600 million. The plant’s full rehabilitation and expansion is expected to take years, but it will be designed as it’s built, in effort to expedite the construction process.
This approach also allows the IBWC to spend the funding it currently has as it awaits more. The project is currently short of funding, and this allocation, if approved by Congress, would help to bridge that gap.
“I urge Congressional leadership to take this up immediately so that the victims of this crisis and those of the recent hurricanes can receive the relief they need,” Peters said.
