June 28, 2019

By Leon Benham

At a meeting held in San Diego last month, the California State Lands Commission released a staff report[1] which outlined an alternative to discharge 30 million gallons a day of untreated Mexican sewage off the coast of Imperial Beach.  This would be in addition to the existing 15 million gallons a day already discharged by the City of San Diego wastewater plant and another 25 million gallons a day of processed Mexican sewage from the IBWC plant.  This alternative if adopted would increase to total outflows of sewage waste off Imperial Beach by over 80 percent.

First described in 2017 by Channel 10 News during the large sewage spill caused by a break in the Mexican pipes this alternative plan to dump untreated sewage off Imperial Beach is also known as the Wildcoast/Surfrider TRV plan.  During that telecast, this idea was brought forward by the Mayor of Imperial Beach Serge Dedina and pitched to Todd Gloria during a visit to the US/Mexico border.

[1] Staff Report Informational 102 6/28/2019