University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2012-01-01 A Study of International Wastewater Challenges and Policy in the Tijuana River Watershed Gloria Ann Villaverde University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Environmental Engineering Commons, and the Environmental Law Commons Recommended Citation Villaverde, Gloria Ann, "A Study of International Wastewater Challenges and Policy in the Tijuana River Watershed" (2012). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 2212. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/2212 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL WASTEWATER CHALLENGES AND POLICY IN THE TIJUANA RIVER WATERSHED GLORIA ANN VILLAVERDE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DOCTORAL PROGRAM APPROVED: __________________________________ Irasema Coronado, PhD, Chair __________________________________ Charles Turner, PhD, Co-Chair __________________________________ Wen-Yee Lee, PhD __________________________________ Mark Hernandez, PhD ________________________________ Benjamin C. Flores, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © By GLORIA A. VILLAVERDE 2012 DEDICATION Firstly, I dedicate this work to my parents, Pedro and Josephine Villaverde, who are no longer here but continue to influence me every day. And to my son, Armand, who has spent much of his life with his mother in school. He has given me the best education I will ever have. A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL WASTEWATER CHALLENGES AND POLICY IN THE TIJUANA RIVER WATERSHED GLORIA ANN VILLAVERDE DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Environmental Science and Engineering Doctoral Program THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO August 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As long as it’s taking me to complete this process, my list of acknowledgements should go on for several pages. First and foremost, I must thank my committee members who have stuck with me while I took the scenic route. My committee chair, Dr. Irasema Coronado, stepped in to the position when all seemed lost. As busy as she is, she has taken the time to read manuscripts, quickly respond to emails and even listen to miserere when life was throwing me lemons. She has provided guidance and support whenever possible, especially in the final months of this project. Her dedication to student success is unmatched. Although he is several hundred miles away and has many of his own students to mentor, Dr. Mark Hernandez has provided encouragement throughout the years, and when all seemed lost, he contributed a great deal toward saving this project as well as very helpful editing assistance. He is a true mentor and educator. Dr. Wen-Yee Lee took an early interest in this topic, and from the beginning, she has offered much encouragement and strategic planning for me to pursue this far-from-typical ESE topic and has offered thoughtful analyses of earlier drafts. Dr. Chuck Turner has challenged me to know more and work harder, often with great humor. He has been more than fair and his honesty and forthrightness have been greatly appreciated. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dr. William Weaver who introduced me to this truly interdisciplinary topic. I owe great thanks to Cindy Conroy (I think). She, somehow, talked me into doing a doctoral program when I had no intention of going past my master’s degree. I have known Cindy for many years. Her support has been invaluable, and I and happy to call her my friend. I would be v remiss if did not mention Drs. Lillian Mayberry and Jack Bristol. What they call mentoring, I call loving harassment. Either way, they have encouraged me not to spend the rest of my life ABD. Dr. Scott Weirich developed the model upon which my analysis is based. He provided much guidance and technical assistance. Dr. Francisco Soto Mas also offered much support and encouragement and is a great role model through his generosity and persistence. The staff at the UTEP Graduate School and the NSF-funded AGEP program made this process so much easier and less financially painful. UTEP Registrar, Miguel Sifuentes, is a consummate professional, and whether I contacted him as professional staff or a student, I have always been impressed with his speed and willingness to help. Other individuals like Dr. Laura Serpa, Dr. John Walton, and Gilbert Anaya would probably wonder why I’m acknowledging them at all. None of them would question helping someone out because that is who they are. Fellow ESE classmates like Amit Raysoni, Arturo Woocay, and Stewart Cheung made this endeavor fun. I owe them many thanks for all the laughs we shared. I am greatly indebted to unnamed family and friends, present and past, who have offered support for this and many of my other hair-brained schemes, never saying that I wasn’t capable. I’m grateful to Honey Bunny for his support and knowing when to leave town. And finally, I thank my girls, Tobi and Juanda Sue; they kept me moving. vi ABSTRACT Since the 1930s, untreated and undertreated sewage from Tijuana, Baja California, México has been released into the Tijuana River Watershed causing contamination of the water supply, crops, the Tijuana Estuary and California beaches. Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has exacerbated the problem by causing population and industrial growth explosions for which there have been insufficient services to meet the needs of the people. The waters of the Tijuana River flow (from México) north over the International Border, into the Tijuana Estuary, discharge out to the Pacific Ocean and often flow north, up the California Coast; therefore, the river’s contents are of great concern to the US. In the early 1990s, the U.S. and México sections of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) reached an agreement, in Minute 283, to co-fund a secondary wastewater treatment plant to be placed on the U.S. side of the border, the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP). The first phase of the facility opened in 1997 with the capacity to treat up to 25 mgd of México’s wastewater to an advanced primary process, which is not in compliance with water quality standards established by either federal government. Through vigorous lobbying, the funding for the secondary treatment phase at SBIWTP was delayed. Instead, a new IBWC minute was adopted and two public laws were passed in favor of a treatment proposal by an upstart U.S. company with no previous wastewater treatment experience. Through a no- bid process, the US IBWC agreed to enter into a public-private partnership agreement with Agua Clara, LLP whose job was to design, construct, operate, and maintain a wastewater treatment plant in México, called Bajagua. vii This dissertation reviews the history of water pollution problems in the Tijuana Watershed and the process that resulted in the selection of an anorexic proposal that squandered more than ten years of legitimate action, thus resulting in billions of gallons of undertreated wastewater being discharged into U.S. waters. This study finds that the protracted process seriously jeopardized water quality and public health in the region, placing both in the back seat to politics and patronage. Mexican authorities have been working to upgrade and expand their treatment systems. México’s projects consist of a network of decentralized treatment works as opposed to a large centralized facility. Simulations of decentralized and centralized facilities for the area propound that México’s decentralized network is a better strategy to meet the wastewater treatment needs of the basin. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..v ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ix LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..xiii LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Problem Statement…………………………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 History of the Problem……………………………………………………………………………………………..3 1.3 Human Population……………………………………………………………………………………………………7 1.4 Physical Characterization of the Tijuana Watershed……………………………………………….12 1.4.1 Climate…………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 1.4.2 Geology & Geomorphology………………………………………………………………………16 1.4.3 Soil & Flora……………………………………………………………………………………………….17 CHAPTER 2 CHALLENGES, TREATMENT & SOLUTIONS…………………………………………………………….20 2.1 Characterization of the Wastewater Problem…………………………………………………………20 2.2 Pathogens and Toxic Substances in Wastewater…………………………………………………….35 2.3 Wastewater Treatment……………………………………………………………..……………………………43 2.4 Treatment at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant………………..46 2.5 2005 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Alternatives………………………..54 2.4.1 Alternative 1…………………………………………………………………………………………….56 2.4.2 Alternative 2…………………………………………………………………………………………….58 ix 2.4.3 Alternative 3…………………………………………………………………………………………….60 2.4.4 Alternative 4…………………………………………………………………………………………….62 2.4.5 Alternative 5…………………………………………………………………………………………….66