A company called Bajagua that won a sole source government contract to build a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana to clean water that flows to San Diego says it’s still moving forward. That despite the fact that the federal agency in charge of the project has suspended activity. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has details.
The International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, has stopped activity on the wastewater treatment project because Bajagua is going to miss a court ordered deadline to complete the plant.
A federal judge ordered the project be competed no later than September 30, 2008.
The IBWC says Bajagua will miss that mark by five months. Commission officials say it’s up to the court to grant the company extra time.
Craig Bendetto is Bajagua's spokesman. He says the delays aren't Bajagua's fault. He says it would have been more helpful to have the IBWC's full cooperation.
Bendetto : I don't want to say that I blame them for this. I mean they have their reasons and explanations for why they were slow to respond. But those delays created delays that affected the project schedule.
Bajagua missed a May 2nd deadline to, among other things, sign a construction contract.
The IBWC is under a federal order to bring wastewater discharged from an existing sewage plant in San Ysidro up to a secondary treatment level . Bajagua is supposed to be the solution.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
