Why this matters
For decades South Bay communities have faced the repercussions of failing sewage and wastewater facilities on both sides of the border.
San Diego County leaders are weighing whether to take legal action aimed at holding the company managing a federal wastewater plant along the U.S. border accountable for pollution.
The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to “explore litigation options” against Veolia, the French transnational company managing the federal wastewater plant on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico.
The options on the table are to start their own case against Veolia for failing to curb Tijuana River pollution, or join one of the other lawsuits already filed this year against the company on behalf of Imperial Beach residents. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer also said they may consider taking action against other responsible parties, including Mexico.
The decision comes as pressure mounts on the International Boundary and Water Commission and Veolia to mitigate the binational sewage crisis impacting residents throughout the river valley. As of this month, three major lawsuits were filed against Veolia, which also recently reached a $25 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by Flint, Michigan, residents over water contamination there.
The Tijuana River sewage crisis, decades in the making, has escalated in recent years as infrastructure on both sides of the border has continually failed, allowing billions of gallons of raw sewage to pour into the river and the Pacific Ocean.
The county says that joining efforts to hold responsible parties accountable could add pressure to spur faster action. Tuesday’s vote also marks a shift from the Board of Supervisors’ 2017 decision to forgo litigation on the same issue.
“We have to continue doing everything we can to push those entities with power and responsibility to actually take action to fix this crisis and protect our communities,” Lawson-Remer said, noting Veolia’s role in other pollution cases across the country.
“It’s important to see things in a pattern,” she said. “This may not be an isolated incident.”
Adam Lisberg, a spokesperson for Veolia, flew out from New Jersey to attend the meeting and gave public comments in addition to submitting a letter to the board. In that letter, Veolia CEO Karine Rougé says the sewage crisis is “beyond their control” and that, despite sewage flows increasing, the plant’s capacity has not changed and the U.S. government has failed to fund facility repairs.
Following the meeting, the company issued another statement:
“Scapegoating Veolia’s hard-working frontline employees for political theater does nothing to advance real solutions for the people of San Diego County. The root cause of the environmental crisis in the Tijuana River estuary is the decades-long failure of the authorities on both sides of the border to address the surge of unchecked sewage and pollution pouring in from Tijuana in quantities that far exceed the capacity of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant. We hope that the Supervisors, and all who favor real solutions over political theatrics, will accept our offer to visit the plant and see these issues firsthand so they can take a more informed approach moving forward.”
Public comments fell across the spectrum, with some saying that lawsuits against Veolia were a distraction from addressing the source of the pollution, while advocacy groups such as Surfrider San Diego urged the supervisors to act.
Gerrell Howard, vice president of the Service Employees International Union 221, which represents some 13,000 public employees in San Diego County, endorsed the action, but also said that so far, the county has not done enough.
“It is not just a federal job, it is the county that needs to be louder on this,” Howard said.
Supervisor Nora Vargas who represents the frontline communities in the South Bay said the county has been working with numerous agencies and local governments to address the sewage crisis, including with partners in Mexico.
“This is not something that we’re taking lightly,” Vargas said. “it’s not me sitting in my office trying to figure out what else we can do, but this is really a partnership with the community to move forward and do this work.”
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who has been calling on the state and federal governments to declare a state of emergency to address the pollution crisis commented to inewsource from Mexico City, where she has been calling attention to the border sewage crisis as part of a binational delegation.
“We need to explore every single option as swiftly as possible in light of our state and federal administrations not heeding our calls for a state of emergency,” Aguirre said.
“As we face the forthcoming rainy season, we can only expect conditions to worsen and the health of our communities to suffer.”
