The decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis is closer to being solved with a historic new agreement between the United States and Mexico, with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials saying the Trump Administration “has not been shy about holding Mexico accountable.”
Raw, untreated sewage has been flowing into Southern California from Mexico for many years, with Tijuana River pollution being recorded since at least the 1930s and the modern-day sewage crisis growing in the early 2000s, experts say.
“The core of the issue lies in the sewage treatment plant’s inability to cope with the volume of wastewater generated by Tijuana’s rapid population growth and urban expansion,” environmental lawyer Phillip Musegaas wrote for the San Diego Coastkeeper. “Many of the city’s sewer lines and the treatment facility itself are antiquated and were not designed to handle such a heavy load, leading to frequent overflows and breakdowns.”
Over 100 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with industrial chemicals and garbage have poured into the Tijuana River and San Diego County since 2018, the Associated Press reported.
As Breitbart News reported, the sewage crisis has been forcing San Diego beaches closed, interrupting U.S. Navy SEAL training, and making Americans sick for years as the waste mismanagement grew worse.
In July, the Trump administration secured an agreement with Mexico to ensure a solution to the issue, with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Alicia Bárcena, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the countries.
The MOU addressed a 2022 treaty known as “Minute 328,” wherein the Mexican government committed $144 million and the U.S. committed $350 million to sewage management projects. Speaking on the MOU signing, Zeldin revealed that Mexico still had yet to obligate a whopping $93 million of those funds, but that would be changing.
The deadline for Minute 328 projects was also moved up, and several side projects in Mexico have been added to the docket to account for Tijuana’s future population growth and maintenance costs.
An October update boasted that an initial review conducted by the EPA and the Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), which was finished ahead of schedule, resulted in the ability to “slash roughly 12 years of construction time across all projects.”
“Through intensive collaboration, we were able to cut through red tape, identify efficiencies, and overcome bureaucratic hurdles,” Zeldin told Breitbart News at the time. “While substantial construction work lies ahead, this represents a crucial step in our commitment to protect American communities from cross-border pollution.”
In addition to working on physical construction projects, the next steps in implementing the MOU included signing a new treaty “Minute” by the end of the year — which the EPA unveiled to Breitbart News on Monday.
Minute 333 was agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexico in “Trump Speed,” agency officials said.
Stating that everything the U.S. identified in Section 4 of the MOU as being a part of the solution to the sewage crisis has been codified in the new Minute, officials explained that Section 4 was specifically designed to account for future population growth in the Tijuana area.
Among other actions, the new minute obligates Mexico to develop a Tijuana water infrastructure master plan within six months and to construct the Tecolote-La Gloria Wastewater Treatment Plant with a capacity of three million gallons per day (MGD) by December 2028.
Notably, Minute 333 also does not obligate any additional U.S. taxpayer funding for sewage projects on either side of the border.
“The Trump Administration has not been shy about holding Mexico accountable, working in close coordination with government counterparts to ensure both nations are faithfully implementing all agreed upon actions from this year’s agreements,” EPA officials said in a statement, highlighting a recent post from President Donald Trump bringing attention to the crisis.
Zeldin added:
Great progress has been made this year to achieve the 100 percent solution to the Tijuana River sewage crisis, but it would have all been for nothing if we don’t take the appropriate steps to account for the inevitable population growth of Tijuana and surrounding areas. That’s what Minute 333 achieves.
“We have set the framework for tremendous steps to be made, and we now look forward to very quickly hitting the ground running to implement the mutually agreed upon actions,” the administrator continued. “I saw the frustration of San Diego area residents firsthand when I visited in April. I promised them a 100% solution to this issue, and the Trump EPA is doing its part to deliver.”
The latest Minute was also praised by the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), former Navy SEAL officer Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), California Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones, California Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R), San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond (R), and the mayors of several San Diego County towns.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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