$400M project launched to tackle South Bay sewage crisis

IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) — Lourdes Vela often brings her 3-year-old granddaughter to Imperial Beach, but she says the experience is marred by the pervasive stench.
“We have our nice ocean, our beaches, and people can come down and visit, but it smells so bad people don’t want to come here,” Vela said.
Longtime resident Victoria Urtason has endured the sewage stench for decades.
“I am a retired, tax-paying citizen, and I’m not being protected by my government, so I am sick,” said Urtason, one of a few residents holding signs outside the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant Tuesday afternoon.
Local, state, and federal leaders gathered there to celebrate what they view as a major step toward
.
“This project is going to rehab a very vulnerable plant, expand it, double the capacity, and it’s going to result in environmental improvements that this community deserves,” said Maria Elena Giner, commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Tuesday afternoon marked the official launch of the first phase of a roughly five-year project to rehabilitate the plant.
The planned expansion, combined with wastewater infrastructure improvements in Mexico, aims to stop up to 90% of untreated wastewater from reaching San Diego’s beaches. The project will be funded with $400 million in federal funding.
Urtason said the efforts are long overdue.
“Rather than enjoying my home that I raised my children in, having BBQs out in my yard, I can’t go out there. It’s just a shame, it’s pathetic. Everyone is just doing their little bit,” she said.
Work at the plant is expected to start this year as the CDC continues investigating the public health impacts of sewage pollution.