For more than 15 years, two wastewater treatment plants in eastern Tijuana have presented an opportunity – and a challenge.

The Arturo Herrera and La Morita plants raised hopes of large-scale reuse of wastewater in the city – for irrigation, construction and industrial use. US and Mexican authorities celebrated their opening and said the project would benefit both sides of the border.

But because there is no pipe network to carry the plants’ wastewater, most of this highly treated wastewater goes unused. Instead, 20 to 35 million liters are discharged into the nearby Tijuana River canal every day – an amount that accounts for about 14 percent of the city’s water use, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s one of the most depressing things to see how much work it takes to treat this water,” said Doug Liden, an environmental engineer with the EPA, at an advisory meeting of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve earlier this month. “And then you see this beautiful, crystal-clear water being dumped into a big concrete canal where it flows six miles toward the border and mixes with all kinds of groundwater and raw sewage.”

A suggested solution: As Tijuana today faces increasing water shortages, authorities at the Baja California water company CESPT are studying a solution: the plants’ wastewater would be piped to a location above the AL Rodriguez dam to be stored and eventually delivered to a plant that would convert it into drinking water. The project would be one of the first in Mexico to involve what engineers call “indirect drinking water reuse.”

Tijuana is 98 percent supplied by the Colorado River. Since the drought has led to cuts, the state government is looking for new sources, including building a desalination plant.

“We are in a much more difficult situation than San Diego,” said Hernando Duran, former director of the state water commission and director of Tijuana Verde, part of the nonprofit citizens group Tijuana Innovadora.

“Since 2022, supply has been lower than demand,” he said.

Duran was head of the state water authority in Tijuana when both treatment plants opened in 2008. The following year, he oversaw efforts to divert a small portion of the treated water to Morelos State Park. He continues to advocate for wastewater reuse. Sitting in a small cafe in the city’s green Rio Zone last week, Duran was emphatic: “It’s just unimaginable that today we would be watering these green spaces here with water from the Colorado River.”

Excerpt from minute 328: The state’s current project is part of a series of measures aimed at reducing the flow of sewage-contaminated water from Tijuana to San Diego and eliminating discharges into the sea south of the border. Mexico and the United States have pledged $474 million for a series of infrastructure projects in 2022 under the agreement known as Minute 328.

The US and Mexican authorities meet regularly and each country has pledged to provide US$10 million for the first phase of diverting treated wastewater from the two plants.

“One thing that is really encouraging – and this is the first time I’ve seen this – is the great support we’re getting from Mexico for this project,” EPA engineer Liden told members of the San Diego Regional Quality Control Board earlier this month.

The total cost of the project would be $90 million, Liden said, plus another $12 million annually for operations and maintenance. “This all sounds very expensive, but when you compare it to the cost of desalinating seawater, it’s actually quite cheap,” Liden said.

Project roadmap: Earlier this year, a 62-page report commissioned by the North American Development Bank outlined the steps needed to complete the project, from obtaining permits to expanding treatment plants and ensuring water quality to conducting public awareness campaigns.

“The idea was to make the concept of reusing the water more concrete,” said Salvador Lopez, the bank’s chief environmental officer. “It provides a roadmap of what actions need to be taken, what infrastructure would be needed and how much it would cost to remove that infrastructure and how much it would cost to remove the water from the river.”

The report proposes carrying out the project in two phases: the first phase will involve modernising the sewage treatment plants and building a pipeline to the dam. The second phase will involve rehabilitating the drinking water treatment plant.

In the end, both countries would benefit, Lopez said. Diverting water from the river would be a “direct benefit” to the United States. And Mexico would have a new water source that is “much more resilient to drought and climate change than if you had to bring water all the way from the Colorado River,” he said.

New rules for dog lovers when crossing the border

On Saturday, August 3, shortly before 10 a.m., a woman with nine caged dogs drove her Honda SUV to the checkpoint at the San Ysidro border crossing, the busiest on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dana Dallabetto is a U.S. citizen living in Rosarito Beach and the founder of Tragic to Magic, a nonprofit that brings rescued street dogs from Mexico to the U.S. for adoption. She and two volunteers drove to San Diego that morning in three vehicles with 27 dogs in their care. They do this weekly.

However, this was their first attempt under the CDC’s new regulations for importing dogs into the United States. Since the United States is a low-risk country for rabies, authorities only required proof of a dog importation form. The volunteers carried envelopes for each dog with a receipt for the new form. As usual, they also carried a vaccination record, as well as a microchip and sterilization certificates.

“I have all the paperwork, everything,” Dallabetto told the controller in Cabin 20, who quickly waved her through with her four-legged passengers, including a poodle-terrier mix named Lilly, a Maltese mix named Pepper and a wild terrier mix named Benji.

“Yes, I was a little worried, but they didn’t even check all the envelopes,” said volunteer Denise Lopez, who was transporting nine dogs in another vehicle. “They asked for the receipts of the forms, just checked them, looked at the dogs and just let us through.”

Nearshoring and security: A new report examines the rising costs of crime for transnational companies operating in Mexico and recommends ways to counteract the trend. “Organized Crime and Violence in Mexico: Considerations for the Future Nearshoring of Foreign Direct Investment” was presented this month in San Diego at the Institute of the Americas. Author Cecilia Farfan-Mendez writes that much of the cost of crime for the private sector “comes from trying to protect its companies from violence and insecurity in the country.” She found that Baja California was the highest-cost state in Mexico in 2021. One way to improve safety conditions is through community violence prevention programs, the report said.

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