Border Report Live: How Mexico water woes impact the US border

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) -- From contamination on the west coast to a drying up Rio Grande in Texas, water woes stretch across and along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Widespread sewage spills south of the border are affecting the health and well-being of southern California residents living in the contaminated Tijuana River Valley. And South Texas is being threatened from a lack of water – due to drought, population growth and Mexico not paying the water it owes the United States under an international treaty.

What’s being done and how the border regions are coping with these issues are topics that Border Report's Sandra Sanchez and Salvador Rivera discussed on this week's Border Report Live show with Chip Brewster.

Mexico's water debt

Mexico and the United States for 80 years have had an international water treaty that regulates how and when the two countries are to pay each other for water. But Mexico is currently way behind in water payments to the Rio Grande during this current five-year water cycle.

That caused Texas' only sugar mill to shut down earlier this year, taking with it 500 jobs in the farming border town of Santa Rosa. Hidalgo County has declared a disaster because of lack of water. Citrus and onion crops in the Rio Grande Valley are being threatened. And the South Texas border city of Laredo fears it will run out of water by 2040.

Under the 1944 treaty, Mexico is supposed to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water during a five-year cycle. The country is not considered in debt until that time frame is up, but the current cycle ends in October 2025 and Mexico has paid just over one year's worth of water, so far.

Mexico is supposed to deliver about 350,000 acre-feet per year. But Mexico has paid only 417,225 acre-feet, as of Sept. 28, according to data from the International Boundary and Water Commission.

An acre-foot of water is a term used to measure how much water would cover one foot for one acre of land, or about 326,000 gallons. An Olympic-sized swimming pools, for instance, contains about 2 acre-feet of water.

Since last year, U.S. IBWC Commissioner Maria Elena-Giner has tried to get Mexico to sign on to change the treaty -- called a "minute." That would allow Mexico to send water payments directly to South Texas without having to send two-thirds of the water to the northern Mexican border state of Tamaulipas.

Diplomatic efforts have failed

In July, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, whose district includes Santa Rosa, Texas, traveled to Mexico City to meet with officials over the water payments. He returned hopeful after meeting with then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as then President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum.

And he even told Border Report that he was "assured" payments would be made soon.

But they haven't been. Now Sheinbaum has assumed the presidency, but there have been no indications from Mexico City that officials south of the border are working to make payments, or will agree to adjustments to the long-standing water treaty.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been asked to intervene. And several lawmakers have filed legislation that would withhold about $7 million in funds to Mexico until it pays water owed to the United States.

South Texas lawmakers have grown frustrated with the situation. Several gathered in August in the border town of Pharr, Texas, for a symposium on water solutions, which drew mayors, growers, and irrigation district managers from throughout the Rio Grande Valley and even Laredo, which is about 120 miles away.

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, who represents McAllen, has called out Blinken and Giner, saying they haven't done enough to prompt payments from Mexico.

She also has formed the South Texas Water Working Group, which is chaired by former McAllen City Manager Roel "Roy" Rodriguez. It involves local mayors, county judges and other leaders to try to come up with long-term future water solutions.

Rodriguez tells Border Report that he believes building desalination plants in the region, which borders the Gulf of Mexico, coupled with other infrastructure to convert groundwater into potable water is what the region will need to do in order to keep the taps on for decades to come.

In California, it's millions of gallons of sewage flowing in daily

It's a decades-old problem that's gotten worse as Tijuana has grown from a city of about half a million in the 1980s to a metropolis of more than two million residents. As people moved into the city, the infrastructure never kept up, especially the sewage system.

In Tijuana, the stormwater lines are also used to carry sewage to treatment plants that are supposed to clean the water. But those plants, long ago, became obsolete and in disrepair.

"The stormwater and sewage system is a combined system, you don’t have the separation of stormwater and sewage, so every time it rains, you have that massive amount of water in a very intense amount of time impacting the sewage system as well,” says Paloma Aguirre, mayor of Imperial Beach, the American city most impacted by the sewage in the Tijuana River Valley.

"You get water, sewage, sediment and trash in those water lines, and it all flows into canyons or the canal the feeds the Tijuana River, which flows into the United States," Aguirre added.

Some of the beaches in IB, the ones closest to the border, have been off-limits to swimmers and visitors for more than 1,000 consecutive days.

"This is part of the coastline that's used by people who live in south San Diego County, more than 800,000 people who can't go to the beach or even walk on the wet sand, which is also contaminated," Aguirre said.

There is a facility on the California side of the border that is supposed to catch the sewage from Mexico, treat it, and then release it into the ocean.

But the International Wastewater Treatment plant, built 20 years ago, was designed to handle 25 million gallons per day. It's overwhelmed almost on a daily basis, especially during storms or when pumps break down.

"It's been antiquated for many years, it hasn't worked properly in a long time," she said.

In recent months, for various reasons, the plant has been unable to treat 40 to 50 million gallons of sewage-tainted water daily. Most of it has to be released unfiltered into the Tijuana River Valley and ends up in the Pacific Ocean.

Last month, researchers doing work in the valley discovered worrisome levels of hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide, both toxic gases.

The County of San Diego quickly responded, saying the hydrogen sulfide findings were within California-allowed levels, but it denied any hydrogen cyanide was traced by its monitors.

The researchers later admitted the hydrogen cyanide readings were inconclusive. None has been detected since.

They do say both gases are the result of massive amounts of raw sewage in the valley.

Effects on community

Residents who live along the Tijuana River Valley, like Elizabeth Bagnas, say they worry about their health and about what might be in the air.

"It’s scary. We’re breathing this, and then we say 'Oh my God it stinks.' The other night when it was really, really hot and it was more than stinky, it was headache-inducing," Bagnas said.

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services says it does not have official statistics related to illnesses traced to the sewage.

But, according to Aguirre, clinics and emergency rooms in south San Diego are reporting higher instances of respiratory and gastrointestinal issues.

The county admits the air smells bad, but that it's not unhealthy. It does advise people to stay indoors.

Last month the stench was so bad, school districts in the area canceled all outdoor activities and forced students inside for recess and lunch.

"For the kids, maybe the elderly, when we tell them 'hey you have to stay indoors, and watch your health' that should be a red flag, saying 'hey don’t go outside today,' what are we going to do about tomorrow or the day after?” Aguirre said.

Recently, the county issued air purifiers for 400 households, but more than 3,000 people signed up for the program.

County Supervisor Nora Vargas, who represents the area, has said she is working to get additional funding to acquire more purifiers for residents.

The purifiers are not enough for people like Matthew Mattia, who runs the Southwest Feed store, which has been in business in the Tijuana River Valley for 50 years.

It provides supplies, hay and equipment to horse ranches in the area.

He says things have changed dramatically in recent months because of the smell and what might be in the air.

"My wife doesn’t want me to come to work. A lot of my staff don’t want to come to work and I don’t blame them,” Mattia said. “If they’re scared, they shouldn’t have to risk their lives to come to work and people should not risk their lives to come into the valley, people who own horses and board their animals here."

The South Texas border city of Laredo also struggles with the cleanliness of its water due to aging infrastructure and contamination from a sewage facility across the river in Nuevo León. On Thursday evening, a boil-water order was issued to the city's 260,000 residents after E-coli was detected in the water, according to city officials.

Federal agents and military impacted

The Tijuana River Valley has traditionally been a busy area for migrant smuggling and apprehensions.

Hundreds of Border Patrol agents work in the area and often have to trek into places where the water is contaminated and the air quality is questionable.

Earlier this year, Christopher Harris, a union representative for National Border Patrol Council’s Local 1613, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that agents are constantly getting headaches, rashes, infections and have difficulty breathing.

"It’s not one of the risks typically associated with policing the border," Harris said. "They’re willing to put up with the normal hazards of law enforcement ... we understand that’s part of our job. We get shot at. We accept all that. We do our best to mitigate it. We wear vests. We have trauma kits. But we can’t mitigate sewage and chemicals.”

Navy Seals who train at a new $1 billion facility on the coast not too far from the border, have also reported being impacted by the pollution in the water.

The Navy won't talk about it publicly, but it has admitted training is affected.

"When water is contaminated, in-water evolutions are delayed, moved or cancelled," read a statement from the Navy.

Solutions on the horizon

In short, there are no near-term solutions.

More than $400 million has been allocated to refurbish the International Wastewater Treatment Plant, but the work is expected to take five years according to Rep. Juan Vargas, D-CA 52nd District.

"It is what they call progress design built, so during the time they’re actually designing, they’re also going to be building it," Vargas said.

When finished, the plant's capacity will double.

"It’s been hell down here, that’s what it’s been. I mean it smells like hell, people have headaches, we get calls all day long," Vargas said. "I smell it and the truth is, even if you don’t go in the water, you still smell it and I think there is a health risk."

Vargas does praise the work done by the Mexican government.

He insists former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his successor Claudia Sheinbaum have been instrumental in building facilities south of the border to keep sewage from flowing into the U.S.

Currently, a treatment plant six miles south of the border is being totally remodeled.

But until the work is done, all the sewage it would normally treat is being released into storm drains and canyons complicating the problem in the Tijuana River Valley. And all of it flows into the ocean, where currents push it toward the north, contaminating the coastline in Imperial Beach and beyond.