San Diego Border Wastewater Treatment Plant Fast-Tracks Expansion Project

Officials say part of the project will be completed in 100 days instead of the previously projected two years.

A canyon collector of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant nearby the Mexico border in San Diego on Mar. 14, 2023.. Jane Yang/The Epoch Times

SAN DIEGO—Federal agencies overseeing a plant in San Diego that treats wastewater coming through the border from Tijuana, Mexico, are accelerating part of an expansion project and expect it to be completed in 100 days instead of the previously projected two years, they announced on May 20.

This will provide significant relief to the decades-long border sewage crisis that has caused year-round beach closures and health issues affecting San Diego border communities, the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.

“This strategy will deliver immediate benefits by reducing polluted river flows and addressing odors that have been a longstanding concern for U.S. residents,” the agencies said in a statement.

The accelerated project is a part of a rehabilitation and expansion plan launched in October 2024, aiming to double the treatment capacity of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, located at the San Diego border and overseen by USIBWC.

The whole plan, projected to take three to five years, aims to double the facility’s current treatment capacity of 25 million gallons per day to 50 million gallons per day, with a peak capacity of 75 million gallons per day.

The fast-tracked part of the project is expected to increase the plant’s capacity to 35 million gallons per day by late August.

USIBWC Public Affairs Chief Frank Fisher told The Epoch Times via email: “Early work projects have started to prepare the plant for expansion work. More specifics will be coming out explaining how this accelerated timeline will work.”

The full rehabilitation and expansion cost is estimated at $600 million.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) told The Epoch Times in April that Congress has appropriated a total of $653 million since 2020 to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant for its infrastructure expansion. But he said that construction has been too slow over the past few years, and he hopes it will speed up now under new leadership.

The border sewage crisis caused by the Tijuana River pollution has been going on for decades, but the crisis has worsened in recent years because of Tijuana’s rapidly growing population and the deterioration of its water treatment infrastructure.

Over the past five years, more than 100 billion gallons of sewage water have been discharged into the Tijuana River, which flows to the U.S. side and enters the Pacific Ocean, causing air odors, health concerns, and beach closures—including a record of more than 1,000 consecutive days of closure for Imperial Beach by the San Diego border.

The Department of Defense inspector general also found that some Navy SEAL candidates became ill after training in sewage-contaminated ocean water in San Diego’s South Bay.

EPA’s new administrator, Lee Zeldin, has said the sewage crisis is “unacceptable” and called on Mexico to “honor its commitments to control this pollution and sewage.”

During a visit to San Diego on April 22, Zeldin said at a press conference that he was committed to a path of maximum collaboration and “extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.”

Zeldin also said that with regards to project timelines, “the answer has to be to get every project on as fast as humanly possible.”

Zeldin and bipartisan San Diego congressional delegates expressed high hopes at the time for full collaboration with Mexico on solving the sewage crisis.