Environmental Safety Company officers Tuesday evening revealed 10 proposed options to a decades-long air pollution drawback on the U.S.-Mexico border.
SAN DIEGO (CN) — The San Diego area final yr secured $300 million to plug a decades-long wastewater air pollution crises in waters that snake throughout the U.S.-Mexico border and dump uncooked sewage, trash and sediment into the Pacific Ocean.
On Tuesday, Environmental Safety Company officers held a digital public assembly attended by greater than 130 individuals to disclose 10 project proposals being thought-about to repair crumbing wastewater infrastructure on the border utilizing the $300 million earmarked by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA).
On April 5, the EPA printed a Discover of Intent within the Federal Register to organize an environmental affect assertion for the proposed undertaking, triggering a 45-day public remark interval for individuals to weigh in on attainable options.
“We acknowledge nobody undertaking addresses the entire issues,” EPA engineer Doug Eberhardt advised assembly attendees.
He famous the circulate of sewage from Tijuana into the Tijuana River, which snakes throughout the U.S.-Mexico border and empties on the Pacific Ocean in Imperial Seaside, “is a direct public well being risk” and year-round drawback in each moist and dry seasons.
Present wastewater infrastructure in Tijuana doesn’t have the capability to deal with the circulate of sewage and runoff, a few of which spills out of collectors which have reached capability or leaks out of getting older sewage pipes and contaminates the river, Eberhardt mentioned.
The tasks proposed by the EPA have been separated into options centered on treating contaminated river water, treating sewage or focusing on sediment and trash. Eberhardt mentioned a number of tasks could also be chosen to handle the assorted issues related to the air pollution.
Proposed tasks embrace a brand new Tijuana River Diversion System within the U.S., increasing and upgrading present diversion infrastructure in Mexico, treating or diverting wastewater and enhancing trash assortment methods, amongst others.
The proposal to divert and deal with water within the U.S. could treat as much as 163 million gallons of wastewater a day, Eberhardt mentioned.
However Falk Feddersen, a professor within the Integrative Oceanography Division at Scripps Establishment of Oceanography at College of California San Diego who’s studying how to predict when beachgoers will get sick from contaminated water, expressed concern infrastructure that might deal with over 150 gallons of wastewater isn’t adequate.
“There are many occasions throughout winter when the circulate can recurrently exceed this stage,” Feddersen mentioned in a written remark.
Different commenters echoed Feddersen’s concern the chosen undertaking ought to concentrate on controlling the air pollution on the supply in Tijuana, relatively than ready to deal with it as soon as it crosses into the U.S. watershed.
Recycling the handled wastewater was additionally a prime concern, as solely one of the proposed tasks known as for steering handled wastewater into the Rodriguez Dam in Mexico.
One member of the general public known as it a missed alternative.
“We’re lacking a superb alternative for wastewater reclamation and reuse, particularly as a result of we’ve got cyclical droughts in California and Baja California,” Mitchell McKay mentioned.
The general public remark interval to weigh in on potential wastewater infrastructure tasks ends Might 20.
