Agency OKs sewage plant for Mexico
http://www.signonsandiego.com
Agency OKs sewage plant for Mexico
Agreement signed with Bajagua LLC
By Mike Lee and Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
February 16, 2006
A U.S. border agency announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement allowing a San Diego County company to build and operate a sewage treatment plant in Mexico.
The controversial and unusual project, expected to cost at least half a billion dollars over 20 years, is aimed at reducing sewage overflows that have fouled beaches in southern San Diego County since the 1930s.
The contract was issued without the typical open-bid process.
It leaves critical aspects of the project undefined, including the exact cost to U.S. taxpayers, what kind of technology will be used, and where it would be located.
The firm, Bajagua LLC, has said it wants to build the plant east of Tijuana at the confluence of the Alamar and Tijuana rivers.
In addition, the project still needs permits and other approvals in both countries.
Officials for the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission said they will convene a binational committee to work out unresolved aspects of the contract. Officials for the Mexican side of the agency were not immediately available for comment.
Despite the uncertainties, Bajagua and the U.S. section of the commission said they can get the plant running by the court-ordered deadline of September 2008.
“This . . . gives us an opportunity to solve a problem that has plagued us,â€
