After years of sewage spills, toxic discharges and forced upgrades, California regulators on June 26 approved a new discharge permit for the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant along the U.S.-Mexico border. The sewage plant, which treats sewage from Tijuana that would otherwise flow untreated into the Tijuana River and out to the ocean near Imperial Beach, is now in compliance with U.S. and California laws. The state agreed with the Surfrider Foundation’s request for state-of-the-art water monitoring to ensure the plant continues to do its job to protect public health. The new monitoring standards may take up to two years to put into place.
