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San Diego’s congressional delegation announced Tuesday it had secured the remaining funding needed to upgrade the long-neglected federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border that has allowed sewage from Tijuana to pollute South County shorelines.
But the stopgap spending bill that would provide the $250 million to complete the critical repairs was scrapped late Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump and others urged the House of Representatives to reject the deal, putting the fate of the plant funding in limbo.
.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Scott Peters led the lobbying effort to secure the funds for the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, which needs a total of $600 million to rehabilitate and expand the plant’s capacity. The sum does not include costs to operate and maintain the infrastructure.
Amid news of opposition from the incoming administration, a spokesperson for Peters said via email that while the situation was fluid, there was “a lot of concern” regarding the spending bill’s certainty. Padilla’s office said it was remaining hopeful the bill would still pass by this weekend.
In a statement Wednesday, Vice President-elect JD Vance said Republicans support money for disaster relief, which includes the $250 million for the South Bay plant, but added that a streamlined bill “that doesn’t give the Democrats everything they want” should be passed.
The South Bay facility has long been underfunded and undermaintained. It repeatedly takes in more sewage from Tijuana than it was designed to treat, which has left the agency with multiple Clean Water Act violations for releasing wastewater into the Pacific Ocean beyond what it is permitted
Partisan politics getting in the way for critical infrastructure projects to keep waterways safe and clean. YET 87 senators can agree on almost $1T for the military but nix $250M for this plant!! Super frustrating
Why should the federal government take care of this? Is there any place in the constitution for building sewage plants? This is a state issue that gruesome Newsome or the Californicated legislature should have taken care of, but didn’t. Why don’t we put the responsibility where it belongs?
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If this project was within state borders I would agree 100% but it’s located at an international border so federal involvement makes sense on some level.
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Which side of the border is it? Mexican side or US side? If it is on the US side it is in a state called Californicated and it is state business not federal business, unless it is in the exact area of the border. Perhaps it is even a San Diego problem, unless it is at the Navy base there.
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The international waterway the plant dumps treated sewage in. I think it’s more that just where the physical plant is located
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Why don’t they just use the ocean for the treated water? The only reason I can think of for dumping treated water into an international waterway is that a certain volume of water is required by treaty to go down stream. The Colorado River has these kinds of agreements for states and Mexico.
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Well just to be a general steward of the environment you don’t dump raw sewage into international waters.