Article Written By: Tammy Murga - The San Diego Union Tribune 

San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who represents coastal communities from Carlsbad to Coronado, wants the county to flex its legal muscles to remedy the Tijuana sewage crisis. On Tuesday, she will ask her colleagues to explore whether the county should sue or join lawsuits against “any potential responsible parties” for “damages caused to the Tijuana River Valley, Estuary and Marine Preserve, and the surrounding communities,” according to the supervisor’s agendized proposal.

“This litigation is critical,” the proposal reads. “Numerous compliance deadlines have passed, and the necessary fixes are still incomplete; therefore, we must leverage our legal authority to ensure accountability for the private corporations responsible for pollution.”

At least three lawsuits filed in San Diego state and federal courts, with the latest filed Tuesday, allege Veolia has failed to operate and maintain the South Bay plant adequately, worsening pollution. Two are class action lawsuits seeking damages for Imperial Beach residents, and another was filed by two environmental groups hoping litigation will pressure the federal government and company to act quicker. 

A Veolia spokesperson said Thursday the company was still looking into Lawson-Remer’s proposal. Of the latest class action lawsuit, spokesperson Adam Lisberg said the “allegations are meritless.”

“Veolia North America has done its best to help operate the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the face of increasingly challenging circumstances,” he said in an emailed statement. “The overwhelming cause of the odors and pollution affecting Imperial Beach is the excessive and uncontrolled sewage flows from Tijuana, much of which never even enters the South Bay plant.”

Reports of Tijuana sewage leaking over the border into the San Diego region stretch back at least to the 1930s. While significant improvements were made in the 1990s, the city’s plumbing hasn’t kept pace with population growth. The South Bay plant is supposed to treat 25 million gallons of Tijuana’s wastewater and release it into the Pacific Ocean through an underwater pipe.

Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, who heads the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, has repeatedly said that the plant, from management to infrastructure, has needed an overhaul due to years of underinvestment and improper maintenance. Sedimentation from Mexico and uncontrolled, historic volumes of wastewater have also compromised efforts to bring the plant fully online, she has said.

The commission’s construction budget for projects along the nearly 2,000-mile international border has averaged $31 million. Over the past decade, the IBWC had only spent $4 million on maintenance and repairs to the South Bay plant, when it needed about $1 billion to fix and expand it.

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