SAN DIEGO - An agreement has been reached in the lawsuit over the continued flow of raw sewage into the waters off the coast of San Diego.
The agreement comes five years after the cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista along with the Port of San Diego sued the International Boundary and Water Commission, claiming the agency violated federal law and did not do enough to stem the flow of sewage, industrial waste and trash in the Tijuana River watershed. The ongoing issues has caused South Bay beaches to be closed for days at a time due to the high bacteria levels. The beach closures have gotten worse in the past few years.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the international agency has promised to ramp up its monitoring efforts on both sides of the border, including maintaining berms, better management of water-capture basins and alerting officials in Tijuana about trash buildups in canyons. The Mexican government has also agreed to build a new wastewater treatment facility just south of the border.
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