Summary:
- Tropical Storm Hilary resulted in significant sewage overflow issues in South Bay, impacting water quality and beach safety.
- Approximately two billion gallons of contaminated water entered the United States from Mexico during and after the storm.
- Local sewage treatment plant struggled to manage the increased wastewater flow, leading to bypassing of secondary treatment.
- State water quality officials lack full authority to penalize violations of discharge permits and cross-border sewage flows.
- A costly multimillion-dollar plan to address the sewage problem is still several years away, causing frustration among local authorities.
- Ongoing contamination has rendered the ocean unsafe for swimming in the southern part of the county.
Hurricane Hillary may be gone, but the storm did leave behind a mess here at the international border.
Federal officials say an estimated two billion gallons of contaminated flows came into the United States from Mexico during and after the storm. Contaminated water continues to flow in the Tijuana River Channel, and the sewage treatment plant near the border was overwhelmed for a spell. That brought in a lot of extra wastewater as well as a lot of extra trash. It did cause some problems with some of our pumps. There was a point where it was too much flow. We have equalization tanks to store some flow during the surges, but they were getting close to overflowing.
And we actually bypassed our secondary treatment for a period of about 10 hours. State water quality officials say they'll likely issue Clean Water Act violations, but water officials have limited authority. They cannot issue fines for those violations of discharge permits, and they can't do anything about the cross-border flows coming through the Tijuana River Channel. A $630 million plan to address the sewage issue is still years away, and that's frustrating local officials. We simply have to get that water out of the river into a treatment plant into beneficial reuse if practicable, but discharge three miles offshore safely and in compliance with the Clean Water Act if nothing else. In the meantime, the ocean continues to be unsafe for swimming in the southern part of the county. This is the mouth of the Tijuana River where that contamination hits the ocean.
This beach has been closed for human contact for more than 620 days, and that situation isn't expected to get any better soon. Eric Anderson, KPBS News.
In the midst of concerns over contaminated water and sewage overflow, the community awaits a long-term solution to ensure the safety of their beaches and ocean waters.