TIJUANA AREA SEWERAGE HISTORY
 
1809 Rancho Tia Juana founded by Santiago Arguello.
   
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed establishing International Border between United States and Mexico.
   
1920 City of Tijuana established, first public sewer system installed in the Downtown area.
   
1938 Tijuana is now discharging raw sewage into the Tijuana River Valley causing contamination of crops and water supplies. US Government steps in and constructs the International Outfall pipe to dispose of Tijuana’s sewage offshore near Imperial Beach.
   
1955 Tijuana experiences tremendous growth and is now home to over 150,000 people. Original sewerage system is overloaded and about 3 million gallons of raw sewage is discharged daily into the Tijuana River Valley. Un-sewered canyon areas of Tijuana also contribute to the sewage flow. The City of San Diego proposes constructing a joint treatment plant.
   
1961 Tijuana upgrades sewerage system, collection system expanded and two new pump stations are built to push sewage over the mesa to a treatment plant. Plant construction was postponed due to lack of funding and raw sewage is discharged into the surf of the Pacific Ocean, four miles south of the border.
   
1965 City of San Diego constructs an emergency connection pipe to Tijuana to collect up to 13 million gallons of sewage to prevent pollution of the Tijuana River Valley. Tijuana’s new pump stations are prone to failures.
   
1970's Pollution problem in the Tijuana River Valley continues at an alarming rate, Tijuana’s population continues to grow and portions of the city remain with out adequate sewerage service. Up to 10 million gallons of sewage are discharged into the river valley daily and results in the almost continuous quarantine of beaches in Imperial Beach and at time north toward Coronado.
   
1983 International Boundary and Water Commission steps in and constructs a collection system for the canyon areas in the Tijuana River Valley and a holding pond for sewage draining from Tijuana’s main pump station.
   
1987 Tijuana completes construction of an improved sewerage system which includes a new single pump station, and treatment plant with a capacity of 17 million gallons a day. Even with new system in place raw sewage continues to pour into the river valley from un-sewered communities.
   
1990 Failures of Tijuana’s new sewerage system results in up to 20 million gallons of raw sewage being discharged back into the Tijuana River Valley. New plans sought for a treatment plant on the US side of the border.
   
1997 After extensive planning and dialog from community activist groups, International Boundary and Water Commission puts into operation the International Treatment Plant with a capacity to treat 25 million gallons a day of Tijuana’s sewage. Effluent is now discharged down the South Bay Ocean Outfall distributing treated wastewater 3 miles offshore in 90 feet of water.
   
Today Even with the International Treatment Plant operating pollution continues as raw sewage from system failures and un-sewered portions of Tijuana flow into the river valley. Various options and ideas are still being proposed for future resolve. Available concept known as Bajauga proposes to construct and operate a treatment plant in eastern Tijuana and use the effluent as reclaimed water.

The Tijuana River collects flow from a large watershed in
both the US and Mexico and is considered a ephemeral river
usually only flowing during the rainy, winter months.


Raw sewage pours into the Tijuana River
Valley though small gullies and drains.


An overview of the River Valley looking east. At one time,
the river valley was very fertile and produced a variety
of vegetables.


By the 1970s bold signs were becoming
a common sight in the river valley warning
residents to sewage contamination.


A pump station, constructed by the IBWC in the
1980’s to pump collected sewage back into the
Tijuana sewerage system.


City of Tijuana’s main sewage Pump Station 1, put into
service in 1987, about a mile west of the Port of Entry
and just south of the Border.


An oxidation pond used by the Tijuana sewage treatment
plant. The plant has a capacity to treat 17 million
gallons a day.


Put into operation in 1997 the IBWC International Treatment
Plant now treats up to 25 million gallons a day of Tijuana’s
sewage and discharges the effluent into the South Bay
Ocean Outfall.


A collection structure, used to capture errant sewage
flowing north from Mexico in the canyon areas. This
collector is located in Smugglers Gulch.

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