Environment Report: Where Oh Where Are My Tijuana River Sewage Updates

In “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” Captain Jack Sparrow led his crew to buried treasure on Isla de Muerta – a place that could not be found, except by those who already know where it is.  

That’s how I feel about getting information on the Tijuana River sewage crisis from the Trump Administration’s new leadership. It’s out there – somewhere – but only those who know it exists can find it.  

Public updates alerting when sewage pumps or pipes burst or broke on either side of the border used to hit email inboxes within fairly short order under the previous administration. But under President Donald Trump’s newly appointed Commissioner Chad McIntosh, that’s no longer the case.  

Frank Fisher, a spokesperson for the International Boundary and Water Commission or IBWC – the cross-border water and sewage management agency –  told me the agency switched to using X, formerly Twitter, for those updates.  

“It’s quicker and simpler,” Fisher said.  

Sure, the IBWC posted an update Sept. 9 when a water main burst in Tijuana. Video from the scene showed a geyser of water shooting brown water into the air. Much of that water made its way into the Tijuana River, which began flowing across the border bringing trash and sewage with it. The IBWC posted again on Sept. 10 once Mexico reportedly repaired that water line. 

But the public used to get photos of flooded critical infrastructure managed by the United States at the border, especially at the struggling International Treatment Plant, which I first reported was basically busted back in June 2023.  

When odor complaints from South Bay San Diegans seemingly coincided with the plant’s broken pump station at Hollister Road, the now-retired operations manager, Morgan Rogers, sent regular updates on why it went down – an electrical and control issue – and when it would be repaired.  

The public got notifications when things were working well, too. Like, when the IBWC’s struggling plant finally started to clean water to national environmental and water quality standards for the month of November 2024.  

Patrick McDonough, attorney at San Diego Coastkeeper – an environmental advocacy organization – asked McIntosh why the IBWC stopped sending out alerts during an Aug. 13 meeting of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. Coastkeeper sued the IBWC and its contractor for failing to meet its permit requirements in 2024.  

“Because we’re in litigation I’m not going to engage directly with Coastkeeper, but I’d love it if you’d drop the litigation and then we’d talk very frankly,” McIntosh replied.  

Fisher told me the IBWC is investigating whether it’s possible to send alerts on a subscription basis for people who want to know when information is updated on their website.  

“We feel that through our social media, press releases, website, stakeholder meetings, and emails, we’re doing a good job of keeping the public informed about how we are protecting Americans from exposure to Mexican sewage,” Fisher said. 

After much digging and prodding I finally found the elusive website I’d been looking for: the “Status of Statement of Intent and Minute 328 Projects” portal. Catchy title. This site was actually created under the former IBWC commissioner’s regime, Maria Elena-Giner.  

It shows progress on the work the United States and Mexico agreed to back in 2022. There’s still a lot of red-colored, unfinished work, like rebuilding a 3-mile-long pipe to get untreated sewage to a Mexican treatment plant down the coast. But the website still doesn’t alert us during emergencies.  

I guess it’s all eyes on Elon Musk’s X for now. 

New IBWC Commissioner Won’t Talk with Me 

McIntosh’s office has declined my numerous requests for an interview with the new IBWC leader appointed in April, to learn his vision for the agency. 

“He’s been extremely busy protecting Americans from Mexican sewage,” Fisher, the spokesperson, told me.  

Here’s what we know: He worked in a leadership role at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs. He’s also worked in environmental permitting and compliance for the Ford Motor Company’s manufacturing facilities.  

Before that private sector gig, McIntosh was a natural resources policy advisor to the former Republican governor of Michigan, John Engler. That appointment came after working as the state’s deputy director of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality.  

He’s registered as a professional chemical engineer; one of the only requirements to be the IBWC commissioner is that they must be an engineer. And he’s an attorney. 

Probably my favorite fact: He likes saltwater fishing and hunting, the latter of which years living in Michigan is wont to imbue.  

I’d be more than happy to meet you on a boat.

In Other News

• Bobcats, bobcats, everywhere. Since I first reported about bobcats terrorizing the San Diego Zoo Safari Park last month, I see them popping up all over the county in unexpected places. Three weeks ago, bobcat kittens played for hours in someone’s backyard tree in Carlsbad. Last week, California State Parks wildlife cameras caught a bobcat on the trail at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. And a woman in Poway sent me videos of a bobcat hanging out by her pool last week, too. (I’ll post that vid on my IG: @journomack) 
• In more IG news, Voice’s Bella Ross and I broke big news that San Diego’s favorite place to cry in your car or smoke a bowl – Sunset Cliffs – could see big changes due to sea level rise.  
• Continuing this trend – Reporting intern Tessa Balc educated us that palm trees aren’t trees, dammit, and they’re friggin’ flammable. So the city of San Diego won’t be planting more of them. Check out her video. 
• San Diego Gas and Electric announced it plans to build a new, 100-mile-plus transmission line from Imperial Valley to the San Diego-Orange County border. There’s no published price tag yet, but the last transmission line of a similar size cost $1.9 billion. (Union-Tribune)
• In other SDG&E news, the power company placed near the bottom among a study that ranked electric utilities in the region with information from customer surveys. (Union-Tribune)
• Newly elected San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre redirected $270,000 earmarked for a park in the Tijuana River valley by her predecessor, former Supervisor Nora Vargas, to study how sewer gas released by the river affects surrounding communities. (inewsource and Voice of San Diego) 
• The IBWC granted a $2.5 million contract to a company that plans to test whether firing ozone bubbles into the Tijuana River can help break down contaminants. A Scripps scientist who also studies contaminants in the river is not happy. (inewsource) 
• Tammy Murga, former South Bay reporter for the Union-Tribune, is now KPBS’ new environment reporter. Congrats, Tammy! 
• San Diego’s bus and trolley managers might raise their fare for the first time since 2009. The reason? A $250 million budget deficit. Fares are $2.50 now. But they’re looking at raising it by a quarter or fifty cents. (Union-Tribune) 
• Big changes to California’s landmark environmental law now exempt urban housing projects under 20 acres from environmental review to cut red tape on home construction. But builders aren’t happy with a new part of the law which adds fees on housing developers for how much driving their projects create for residents. I first reported that San Diego County found a way to exempt development from VMT rules anyway. The county hadn’t yet set a price on vehicle miles at the time of that story.  

The post Environment Report: Where Oh Where Are My Tijuana River Sewage Updates appeared first on Voice of San Diego.