Padilla Secures $250 Million in Disaster Aid to Clean Tijuana River
Investment marks the final tranche of funding required to complete the South Bay IWTP upgrade project
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, announced that he and the San Diego Congressional delegation secured $250 million in the Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2025 to combat the ongoing Tijuana River transboundary pollution crisis. Combined with previous investments, this critical funding for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) will give them the full $610 million they requested to repair and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego to address transborder water and air pollution in the region.
In September, Padilla and Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50) led a bipartisan request to congressional leadership for additional funds to repair and upgrade the SBIWTP in any emergency disaster funding package.
“This critical disaster relief funding will finally provide the International Boundary and Water Commission the support needed to repair and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said Senator Padilla. “Southern California communities have for too long faced unacceptable, dangerous health and environmental hazards from the toxic waste and raw sewage flowing across the border. I will keep fighting for federal resources necessary to end this dangerous pollution crisis.”
In just the last five years, more than 100 billion gallons of toxic sewage, trash, and unmanaged stormwater have flowed across the United States-Mexico border into the Tijuana River Valley and neighboring communities, forcing long-lasting beach closures and creating significant negative impacts on water quality, public health, and the environment. Last year, sewage flowed across the border at the highest volume in a quarter century, exceeding 44 billion gallons.
The Tijuana River pollution crisis has disproportionately harmed underserved communities along San Diego’s southern border for decades. U.S. military personnel, border patrol agents, and the local environment and economy have also suffered harmful impacts from waterborne and airborne transboundary sewage flows.
Senator Padilla has prioritized addressing the Tijuana River pollution crisis since he first came to the Senate, most recently securing over $103 million in additional funding for the IBWC in the bipartisan FY 2024 appropriations package earlier this year. The Senate Appropriations Committee also advanced FY25 appropriations legislation that includes another $159 million for IBWC construction that Padilla requested to continue funding projects to address Tijuana River pollution. He successfully secured language in the FY 2023 appropriations package to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to deliver $300 million previously secured in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to the IBWC for water infrastructure projects.
Earlier this year, Senator Padilla and Representatives Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52) and Scott Peters announced bicameral legislation to help combat the Tijuana River sewage pollution crisis. Padilla previously visited the IBWC facility and the Tijuana River Valley in June 2023. Additionally, he wrote to the IBWC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this year to request an update on how the agencies plan to work together to address the ongoing Tijuana River transboundary sewage pollution crisis and repair the SBIWTP.
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