A $5 million cleanup project in the Tijuana River Valley will begin in early 2024, with a completion date before the end of March, officials said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in favor of dredging drainage channels and building a basin for sediment and trash control in the Smuggler's Gulch and Pilot channels.
The Smuggler's Gulch channel enters the United States from Mexico and runs north until it crosses the Pilot Channel and flows into the Tijuana River and finally to the Pacific Ocean.
The funding comes from a $4.25 million grant from the state Water Resources Control Board for dredging and channel work and $750,000 from the county's 2023-24 fiscal year budget to maintain Smuggler's Gulch.
Board Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said the county "is stepping up to tackle the Tijuana sewage crisis — not just in advocating for desperately needed federal action, but also in literally rolling up our sleeves and cleaning up the area with the resources we have."
While project improvements "won't permanently fix environmental catastrophe, it will mean in the near-term that there will be less flooding and trash flowing into our oceans and communities," she added.
Board Chairwoman Nora Vargas called the project a "good first step," demonstrating to area residents that the county will continue with improvements.
Supervisor Jim Desmond said the state grant was important so the county isn't "locked into the entire portion" of channel work.
Pollution and sewage flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border has heightened public concern, which led to supervisors on Sept. 13 voting to continue a state of emergency for the region.
County officials said that since last December, "an alarming 35 billion gallons" have flowed north into U.S. territory from the sewage treatment plant in Punta Bandera, Mexico, impacting the San Diego coastline during the summer.
Earlier this month, the county Air Pollution Control District announced that it was installing sensors in the valley, after residents reported odor from sewage spills into the river.
Although it would normally be part of the Wednesday board agenda — which features land-use and environmental items — the Tijuana River Valley plan was placed on the Tuesday docket because it required four supervisors to approve funding, county officials said, and Lawson-Remer was absent on Wednesday.
