The United States and Mexico have reached a new agreement outlining additional actions and timelines in addressing the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis.
Under the new agreement, known as Minute 333, Mexico will explore expanding its main wastewater treatment plant, plan for population growth, and construct a sediment basin. The US is not obligated to any additional construction projects or funding under the treaty minute.
Minute 333 is an effort to coordinate infrastructure projects, improve monitoring, and address long-standing gaps in planning and maintenance on both sides of the border, said David Fotouhi, deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during a press briefing.
The agreement itself, however, acknowledges that the crisis will not be resolved immediately and conditions all actions on the availability of funding and resources.
“To be crystal clear, this human health and ecological crisis will not end solely with the swipe of a pen,” Fotouhi said. “The next step is for both nations to faithfully implement the agreed upon items in Minute 333. Each time a project is completed, we get one step closer to ending this crisis for good.”
Mexico’s infrastructure commitments
Under the agreement, Mexico must prepare a Tijuana water infrastructure master plan within six months to better align wastewater capacity with population growth.
Tijuana has in recent years faced rapid growth, which strained the already struggling wastewater infrastructure on both sides of the border. Leaders and advocates for the issue have urged for a solution that addresses future projected population numbers.
Minute 333 also requires new feasibility studies to evaluate construction of an ocean outfall at the San Antonio de los Buenos (SAB) Wastewater Treatment Plant and expansion of the SAB plant from 18 million gallons per day (MGD) to 43 MGD.
The feasibility studies will be conducted within the next three months.
Mexico also agreed to construct a sediment basin in Matadero Canyon (also known as Smuggler’s Gulch) before the 2026-27 rainy season, a project intended to reduce the flow of sediment across the border. Sediment flows from Mexico have long plagued international wastewater treatment infrastructure in the US.
Mexico will also construct the Tecolote-La Gloria Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will have a capacity of 3 MGD, by December 2028.
US commitments
The Minute does not outline any new construction projects for the US, and instead focuses on processes and oversight of international wastewater.
Specifically, it requires that the US participate in an interagency, binational “Minute 333 Work Group,” review Mexico’s feasibility studies, and work with Mexico to establish procedures, schedules, and cost-sharing for things such as spill monitoring systems, dredging operations in the Tijuana River, and trash and sediment projects.
An operations and maintenance (O&M) account will be created with NADBank to set aside a portion of any future dollars provided to Mexico to be held for future O&M costs.
Meanwhile, the US is currently rehabilitating and expanding its South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP), which will bring its maximum capacity from 25 MGD to 50 MGD, with a maximum peak capacity of 75 MGD.
The initial expansion was projected to take two years from its launch in the fall of 2024, but it was fast tracked in May 2025, when EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a 100-day timeline. The full expansion is slated for completion by the end of 2027.
Smaller projects the US agreed to in former negotiations have also been fast-tracked this year.
“Great progress has been made this year to achieve the 100% solution to the Tijuana River sewage crisis, but it would have all been for nothing if we don’t take the appropriate steps to account for the inevitable population growth of Tijuana and surrounding areas,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a statement. “That’s what Minute 333 achieves. We have set the framework for tremendous steps to be made, and we now look forward to very quickly hitting the ground running to implement the mutually agreed upon actions.”
Check this out from Judicial Watch today:
Stemming Toxic Waste from Mexico
For decades, hundreds of billions of gallons of trash, toxic sewage and unmanaged stormwater have flooded into the U.S. from Mexico, and the latest plan to remedy this relies heavily on the source, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.
Just a few years after the U.S. government wasted $630 million on a failed plan to stop the constant flow of toxic waste and raw sewage that gushes in from Mexico, the Trump administration is celebrating a new project it guarantees will finally solve the problem though it seems too good to be true. The new initiative, disclosed this week by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), is called Minute 333 and is being hailed as a “historic new agreement between the United States and Mexico” that will “permanently end the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis.” The project relies heavily on Mexico and does not obligate any additional U.S. taxpayer funding, raising serious doubts about its potential to succeed despite the EPA’s claims that it is a historic milestone toward implementing 100% solution to the Tijuana River sewage crisis that contaminates California beaches with high levels of fecal bacteria that pose serious health risks and negatively impact marine life.
Hundreds of billions of gallons of trash, toxic sewage and unmanaged stormwater have flooded into the U.S. from Mexico for years and Americans have paid exorbitant sums to clean it up. The government refers to it as transboundary flow and it contains a combination of treated wastewater, untreated wastewater, and stormwater. Around 50 million gallons of mostly raw sewage flows into the Pacific Ocean from the San Antonio de los Buenos Creek in Tijuana, Mexico, not far from the California border, according to the EPA. Northward currents carry the discharge up the coast to the U.S. causing marine transboundary flows, the agency confirms. During wet-weather events an average of 109 million gallons per day flow into the Pacific Ocean via the Tijuana River. The contaminated water includes raw sewage, trash from Tijuana’s famously polluted urban area and eroded soil from the canyons and upstream of the Tijuana River. The contaminated flows create significant negative impacts to water quality, public health, and the environment.
This has been going on for decades and the U.S. has paid handsomely to mitigate the mess though it has barely put a dent on controlling the damage. The constant stream of pollutants has taken a huge toll, including negatively impacting public health and beach water quality as well as threats to wildlife and U.S. government activities. The untreated wastewater contains harmful pathogens that pose risks to human health, the EPA disclosed long ago. Sediment, trash, and polluted wastewater hurt aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and degrades the marine and estuarian habitats that wildlife rely on to thrive. The pollution has also made U.S. Military and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel quite sick. A few years ago a national news outlet visited the region and published a troubling piece that includes a detailed list of the contaminants in the Tijuana River water; “fecal coliforms, drug-resistant bacteria, benzene, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium medical waste, and DDT, which has been banned for years in the United States.”
No one can blame the Trump administration for celebrating a proposed project to finally stop Mexico’s trash and sewage from seeping into the U.S., but some of the details are likely to ignite skepticism. For starters, Minute 333 was born out of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and his Mexican counterpart, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, in Mexico City over the summer. The MOU says Mexico will seek funding to initiate the construction of a mechanism to divert treated effluent entering the Tijuana River to an upstream site, initiate engineering and financial feasibility of installing an ocean outfall in Tijuana and construct and maintain the sediment basin at Matadero Canyon before the upcoming rainy season. Also known as Smuggler’s Gulch, Matadero Canyon is the U.S.-Mexico border area near San Diego and Tijuana well known for illegal crossings and wastewater pollution. The commissioner of Mexico’s IBWC says the project reiterates her country’s commitments to resolve the border sanitation problem pursuant to the provisions of the 1944 Water Treaty. That means it has taken eight decades for Mexico to keep its end of the deal if in fact Minute 333 goes as planned.
It doesn’t matter if you love or hate Donald Trump. This is good news because it’s getting the attention of the administration.
Stop importing their cheaper manufactured products until they stop exporting their sewage.
Exactly!! “Mexico will explore” is code for kick the can down the road and do nothing. We’ve given Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars to address this problem yet it still exists. This new “agreement” appears to have no teeth so there won’t be any meaningful progress … as usual. It’s obvious Mexico is unwilling to solve this dangerous crisis that poses serious threats to our environment and commerce. Millions of dollars and multiple agreements haven’t worked. To quote Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s time to change our approach to this crisis. It’s solvable if the proper motivation is put in place and that motivation is money. Threaten to withhold US money or tax cross border remittances and you’ll get Mexico’s attention immediately. Force them to create and submit a comprehensive remediation plan and have it reviewed and approved by our environmental experts. This should take months, not years since the experts know what’s going on. Then establish meaningful, aggressive milestones with associated timelines and monitor/audit their progress relative to those. The money flows unless and until a milestone is missed and then it immediately stops. No exceptions! The pain associated with non-compliance has to be severe enough that they never let it happen.
Yes!!!
Imperative that both sides keep meeting and communicating the every growing need to stop the sewerage and toxic waste. Among other things, clear, realistic deadlines have been/ are lacking. The population growth is not new. The growth is not new. The undeserving plant at SAB was known to be able to process less than half the sewerage flowing there before it was completed (way after deadline). The media continues to echo promises, deadlines and unrealistic projections the politicians feed them. No deadlines have been kept… the population grows exponentially, the factories continue to dump industrial toxic waste saturating the water, ground and air…The politicians continue to take bows as though Agreements and deadlines have solved this catastrophic mess. Where is the accountability ? What are the penalties for unkept deadlines that seemingly flow into the sewerage and disappear? Without repercussions, deadlines will remain suggestions, ever changing banners waved by those responsible for ending this environmental nightmare.
Looks like we won’t have clean water in my life time!
Deathly slow action while everyone in the region—residents, Border Patrol, Navy personnel, tourists, and sea life—suffer from in-water and air pollution.
I grew up ignorantly trusting that we were frolicking in clean water, only to see boyhood friends die from mysterious cancer—surfers, lifeguard—then to get diagnosed myself with leukemia.
Coincidence?
Environmental pollution is serious stuff.
Rosarito Beach to Coronado is wrecked; one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.
CLEAN IT UP, and don’t repeat these irresponsible, selfish errors.
I don’t believe anything Mexico “commits” to. Economic and political consequences are the only way to make them adhere to resolving this environmental crisis. More talk means nothing.
Yah great more talking and discussing is just what we need!