Power costs are shock to border sewage plant Facility faces financial crisis unless Congress finds funds By Leslie Wolf Branscomb UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER September 30, 2000

The International Wastewater Treatment Plant at the border is facing serious financial trouble, due in part to increases in its electricity bills.

The plant's managers estimate a shortfall of nearly $5 million in operation and maintenance costs in the coming year unless the federal government increases its budget significantly.

"Clearly, they don't have the money to make it through the next fiscal year," said David Schlesinger, director of the San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department.

While the plant's operators vow to keep treating sewage from Mexico, Schlesinger and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Imperial Beach, have expressed concerns that water quality monitoring may cease or the plant may close.

"The problem we've got is it looks like the administration may have grossly underfunded the thing," said Bilbray. "We're fighting right now to keep the plant operating at the existing level."

The plant, in the Tijuana River Valley, treats up to 25 million gallons a day of raw sewage flowing over the border from Mexico. It is owned by the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The commission oversees boundary and water treaties between the United States and Mexico. Besides the sewage plant here, it runs one in Nogales, Ariz.

The operation and maintenance budget for the local plant was $5.4 million for fiscal year 2000, said commission spokeswoman Sally Spener. The commission has requested a $5.1 million increase for 2001.

The House Budget Committee has proposed that the agency's overall budget remain the same.

In a Sept. 19 letter to Bilbray, Schlesinger asked Congress for help.

"If funds are not available . . . the operation of the (plant) will cease, and up to 25 million gallons per day of raw sewage will flow across the border into San Diego," he wrote.

There is one week left in the congressional session, during which the budget may be changed.

The plant's San Diego Gas & Electric Co. bills have nearly tripled since last fall.

In November the bill was about $47,000, Spener said. The most recent SDG&E bills were for $127,000 and $140,000. The bills have been paid, she said.

Schlesinger was also concerned that the commission may not have enough money to continue paying the ocean monitoring contract. He based this on a letter he received Sept. 5 asking the city to try to reduce its costs. Spener said she believes the plant and the city will reach an agreement to continue the monitoring.

Since the plant's ocean outfall went into operation in January 1999, the commission has paid the city about $1 million a year to monitor the quality of the water flowing through the outfall, 3.5 miles off Imperial Beach.

Though the plant and outfall have reduced beach closures due to raw sewage spills, the partly treated effluent coming through the outfall has consistently failed acute toxicity tests.

Schlesinger said the city will cut off its monitoring if necessary.

"We don't want to get into the position of doing the work for them without being paid," he said. "We don't know when the money will run out."

http://www.uniontrib.com/news/metro/20000930-0010_3m30iwtp.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 02, 2000