WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 31: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on former U.S. President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his hush-money trial before speaking on the Middle East at the White House on May 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden said Trump had a fair trial and an impartial jury found him guilty on all 34 counts and added it is dangerous for anyone to say the trial was rigged. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Following a stressful bout of revisions, Congress sent President Joe Biden a stopgap spending bill that features must-have funding for a long ignored upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill was signed on Saturday.
The measure includes $250 million for the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) — the federal agency responsible for managing the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Tijuana River Valley.
This influx of cash will be put to use updating the plant, which has been unable to properly clean the Tijuana sewage before dumping it on South County shorelines. According to IBEX officials and the San Diego congressional delegation, the money will put towards a $200 million shortfall to repair and expand the plant. The project is expected to take five years to finish, and will cost an estimated $600 million.
Veolia North America, which operates the South Bay plant on behalf of the IBWC, said Saturday in a statement:
This new funding will help repair and improve broken equipment, increase the plant’s capacity and provide stronger environmental protection. Strengthening the South Bay plant is a major step toward a permanent solution for the region’s enormous problems treating sewage that crosses the border from Mexico, and passing this funding into law will help speed water quality improvements to benefit the entire region.
