We’ve been wondering how the county would spend $80 million per year on the sewage-plagued Tijuana River under a proposed half-cent sales tax measure proposed by the San Diego County Supervisors.
On Friday, Supervisor Paloma Aguirre (the issue’s main champion and former mayor of sewage-blighted Imperial Beach) put out her proposed plan.
Main message? Convert a large chunk of that money into a bond (a big loan governments often take out to finance expensive projects) and have the county build a system that treats the entire Tijuana River. It’s also known as the “river diversion” project and Aguirre’s been pushing for it since she was mayor.
That basically involves running the river on the United States side through a new treatment plant (called advanced primary treatment) so that raw sewage doesn’t make its way to the Pacific Ocean (and Imperial Beach). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranked river diversion as the third priority project (out of three) to do on the United States side, largely because it’s expensive to do, as our MacKenzie Elmer has previously reported. But, at the time of the EPA’s study in 2021, it was the only option that would keep the beaches of Imperial Beach open the longest.
Now with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from a new sales tax-supported bond (if voters approve it), the county might just have the bones to build it.
However, it could also mean the county would be on the hook for taking care of such a treatment plant. If the federally-owned one at the U.S.-Mexico border that already struggles to clean Tijuana sewage (and sometimes river water) is an example, we know that’s a huge undertaking with many legal battles.
Politics Report: City Hall’s Death Spiral
City Hall cuts services to balance the budget. Voters get angry. City Hall asks for new revenue for services. The voters say no.
This is starting to feel like a death spiral, writes our Will Huntsberry. Last month, San Diego City Council had to cut $100 million in spending. The city closed half the public restrooms in Mission Beach to help get there. And now people are complaining.
Any political leader who wants to be truly effective — rather than just hold office — will have to find a way to break the cycle, he writes.
Also: Does building more apartments really drive down rent prices? Huntsberry is skeptical.
Read the full Politics Report if you subscribe as a member, here.
Sacramento Report: Big Condo Push
Condos are the cheapest path to homeownership in California, but fewer and fewer are getting built and bought. State lawmakers have been looking at two different ways to fix this by making condo construction less costly and risky for developers.
One made it out of committee, the other one didn’t.
The first bill targets a 20-year-old law that let condo owners sue developers over construction defects which had spiraled into a lawsuit industry driving up building costs. The idea is to loosen that liability by protecting developers from lawsuits one year after they repair a defect.
The second bill came from San Diego Assemblymember Chris Ward, who proposed letting developers keep more of a buyer’s deposit if the buyer backs out of the deal. This bill made Democrats worried it put too much financial risk on everyday buyers.
Ward ended up pulling the bill himself.
Read the Sacramento Report here.
VOSD Podcast: Plug-in Blues
Rooftop solar is all the rage, but what if you don’t own the space above your home?
Environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer joins our hosts on the latest episode to discuss a proposed bill that would make it easier for renters and condo owners to get energy from the sun.
Listen to the latest episode here.
In Other News
- Correction: We updated the South County Report to correct that the opening of a Holocaust exhibit at the Central Library in San Diego is on Sept. 29. Here’s the updated post.
- San Diego County’s animal shelters have chronic, long-known problems that a new report confirms, but the newly appointed director says she’s committed to actually fixing them this time as she points to early progress and a new shelter facility as reasons for optimism. (KPBS)
- A court ruling striking down parts of San Diego’s street vendor law forced the city to stop enforcing it altogether, letting vendors return to previously restricted areas like La Jolla’s beaches. This comeback is reigniting complaints from La Jolla community groups, who want tighter regulation, with no clear resolution in sight. (Union Tribune)
- A four-year Scripps Institution of Oceanography study found that ground sensors can successfully predict San Diego coastal cliff collapses hours to days in advance. This breakthrough could lead to an early, public warning system and potentially prevent fatal bluff collapses. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Naomi Granata. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
Regarding a treatment plant for the Tijuana River. Your article describes it as an advanced primary plant. Under the Clean Water Act, that is not legal, and obtaining a 301(h) waiver is nearly impossible. It would literally take an act of Congress. San Diego has spent nearly 10 years trying to get Secondary Equivalency approved for their billion-dollar project, Pure Water, to offload Point Loma’s advanced primary plant. To suggest a waiver could happen in the Tijuana River is worse than disingenuous because it makes the solution seem much simpler and cheaper than it really is.
Syphon money off from the states worthless bullet train before taxing everyone more.