The yellow signs have stood guard along the shoreline for years. Yes, years. However, their "Keep Out of the Water" message may soon take some days off.
Maybe.
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WATCH HEREAn International Boundary and Water Commission spokesman confirmed Monday that a wastewater treatment plant in Mexico is once again treating upward of 18 million gallons of raw sewage every day.
Toxic Tide at the Border
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SIGN UP Due to poor maintenance and disrepair, the San Antonio de los Buenos plant stopped working in 2020 and began dumping raw sewage directly into the Pacific Ocean. Repairs finally began at the beginning of 2024 and were originally estimated to be completed by September.
That didn’t happen.
Construction delays, weather and supply issues pushed the completion date to February.
Then March.
Then April.
“It's frustrating to know that we were promised this in September,” Surfrider spokeswoman Bethany Case said.
Roughly seven months after the promised completion date, the IBWC spokesman said, San Antonio de los Buenos “is complete and running, but still finalizing the stabilization process to meet Mexican permit standards.”
“That's a good thing," Case exclaimed. "It's great. We're excited about that."
Construction crews will eventually hand the keys over to the daily operators, who will be responsible for maintaining the wastewater treatment plant and making sure it doesn’t dump raw sewage in the Pacific Ocean. That sewage traveled north to Imperial Beach, the Silver Strand and Coronado.
The wastewater treatment plant’s reopening doesn’t end the sewage crisis at the U.S./Mexico border. The United States still needs to repair and expand its wastewater treatment plant. However, that won’t solve the problems created by the estimated 20- to 40-million gallons of polluted runoff from Mexico that finds its way daily into the Tijuana River and flows into San Diego County. That pollution makes its way through the Tijuana River Valley and eventually out to the Pacific Ocean as well.
At least that pollution won’t be mixing with the 18 million gallons of raw sewage from the South.
NBC 7 still hasn’t received specific information from Mexico about when the plant started treating sewage again and at what capacity.
