San Diego celebrated when Congress promised $300 million to build a better plant to treat more Tijuana sewage spilling over the U.S.-Mexico border.
But there’s a problem: The international wastewater treatment plant that’s cleaning that sewage right now isn’t doing a very good job. It’s basically broken, and that means some of that Congressional pay dirt will have to go toward fixing the old plant first.
The leader of the International Boundary and Water Commission, which owns and operates the South Bay plant, brought California Sen. Alex Padilla to view the damage this month. He’s promised that fixing the plant is a top priority.
Meanwhile, the federal government continues to violate the Clean Water Act as the plant under-treats sewage it then discharges into the Pacific Ocean.
Big Vote to Increase Water Rates
The government body that brings water from the Colorado River and Sierra Nevadas to San Diego votes on a big rate increase today.
The San Diego County Water Authority is using some of its reserves to tamp down the potential 14 percent rate increase initially projected to kick in on Jan. 1. Its 24 member agencies will decide whether to pass an 8.2 percent water cost increase on themselves instead.
When the Water Authority does that, those 24 agencies can either absorb those costs or hike water prices for their customers. The city of San Diego, which is building a multi-billion dollar wastewater recycling plant, is looking at hiking rates by 10.2 percent beginning Dec. 1. And another 8.7 percent rate increase beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
Getting water to San Diego is becoming more expensive as the region pays off a big debt for all the things it built to secure and store emergency water.
The Learning Curve: District Is Offering Its Properties for San Diego’s Shelter Search
San Diego Unified has offered up a couple of district-owned properties to the city of San Diego as potential sites for safe parking and camping. Included in a shelter strategy city officials presented during a marathon meeting about the homeless camping ban were the former site of Central Elementary in City Heights and a property in Old Town, but conversations are still in early stages, and the details are scarce, writes Jakob McWhinney writes in the latest The Learning Curve newsletter.
To school board member Richard Barrera, the Central Elementary site offers a number of benefits such as child-friendly amenities like playgrounds. It also could house safe camping in classrooms, which are already equipped with electricity, lighting, bathrooms and Wi-Fi, he said.
Barrera said the district hopes to enter into a licensing agreement with the city that will see it contracting out and funding a service provider to manage the sites. It will likely take quite some time for the city to iron out licensing and contracting details, at which point the school board would also approve the project, meaning these sites probably won’t be coming online anytime soon.
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In Other News
- After a lengthy negotiation period, San Diego Unified’s school board has approved a new contract with its teachers union. The contract includes a 5 percent raise, and a 10 percent retroactive raise. (Union-Tribune)
- The San Diego Police Department last month arrested rapper Boosie Badazz on gun charges after seeing the handle of a pistol in his waistband on an Instagram live. (Union-Tribune)
- A host of California politicians, including San Diego-area representative Mike Levin, say Dianne Feinstein, whose health problems have long been the focus of speculation, has been isolated and unreachable for years. (CNN)
- After a more than a month-long strike that disrupted bus routes in South County and El Cajon, MTS-contractor Transdev reached a deal with drivers. They ratified a new contract Wednesday. (CBS)
- National City’s City Council on Tuesday awarded its last three cannabis storefront permits, despite a legal battle with two cannabis companies who allege officials inappropriately disqualified their applications. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafana.