Work is scheduled to begin early next month on $4.35 million in upgrades to Tijuana’s waste water system aimed at reducing sewage-contaminated flows into the Tijuana River that risk flowing across the border into San Diego, Mexico’s federal government has announced.

“This is an effort to put an end to the health crisis that the municipality has been facing,” Roberto Ramírez de la Parra, the director general of Mexico’s National Water Commission, said in a statement.

The largest of the projects involves the replacement of a 2.6-mile stretch of a large sewage pipeline known as Colector Poniente at a cost of more than $3 million. The cost of the project is being shared by Mexico’s National Water Commission, the Baja California public service commission, CESPT, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through its border infrastructure fund that is administered by the North American Development Bank.

Certified by the bank in November, the project includes the replacement of about 1,000 feet of smaller sewage lines that connect to the larger pipe.


The other projects involve some $1.35 million in upgrades to two key pump stations near U.S. border, according to the CESPT. The funding, shared by Mexico’s federal government and the state of Baja California, would pay for a backup generator and new engines for the CILA Pump Station, which diverts water in the Tijuana River Channel away from the border.

The money also would pay for upgrades to Pump Station One, considered the heart of Tijuana’s wastewater system. One of its main functions is to send untreated sewage to the San Antonio de los Buenos plant near the Pacific Ocean six miles from the border.

Authorities say these projects are immediate measures that can minimize the risk of dry-weather spills that contaminate beaches on both sides of the border.

A plan presented by the Baja California government estimates that the system requires some $330 million in upgrades and new infrastructure. A key project, which has not been funded, involves the expansion and upgrade of the San Antonio de Los Buenos treatment plant.



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