Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) secured a commitment from Jessica Kramer, nominee for Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to help address the ongoing Tijuana River transboundary pollution crisis and its harmful environmental and public health impacts.

During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee nominations hearing, Padilla highlighted the hundreds of millions in federal funding he secured along with the late Senator Dianne Feinstein and the San Diego Congressional delegation to expand and upgrade the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) to address harmful sewage flows. Kramer echoed Senator Padilla’s characterization of these transboundary pollution flows as a “crisis” and emphasized the importance of federal infrastructure investments to combat the crisis. Padilla and Kramer agreed that collaboration and communication, with both Mexico and federal partners like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State Department, is essential to address these harmful cross-border flows.

The hearing comes after Padilla, Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Representatives Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52) recently invited EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to visit San Diego’s South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBITWP) to see firsthand the ongoing environmental and public health consequences of the cross-border Tijuana River sewage crisis on local communities. Administrator Zeldin also recently expressed concern about the flow of sewage flowing across the border, posting about a briefing he received on the crisis and pushing Mexico to “honor its commitments to control this pollution and sewage.”

• PADILLA: I want to begin by expressing my appreciation for EPA Administrator Zeldin’s interest in one of my top EPA priorities, which is finally resolving the Tijuana River sewage crisis. For decades, communities in that part of Southern California have faced persistent both environmental as well as public health impacts of untreated sewage that has flowed across the border. … We recently invited Administrator Zeldin to tour the plant to see firsthand the challenges that we face. So I’d like to just begin by asking you, Ms. Kramer, how familiar you are with this issue, with the projects because assuming you are confirmed, I’d look forward to working with you to bring this project to completion.

• KRAMER: Absolutely. Thank you, Senator, for that question. During my first tenure at EPA under the first Trump Administration, this is, in fact, one of the issues that I worked on. And so EPA had been appropriated that first amount of funding that you referenced, and I was involved in the consideration of the various projects that could be funded to ensure that this transboundary flow crisis — to be completely frank, raw sewage flowing anywhere, in my mind, is a crisis — comes to an end. … I think the challenges that we’re seeing there, one, stems to ensuring that the infrastructure that is in place to ensure that these flows cease, but also two, ensuring that there is communication, robust communication that allows for partnership that is required to ensure that operation and maintenance of those infrastructure investments takes place. And it’s especially easy when it’s in the U.S., and it’s a little bit more challenging when we have infrastructure on the other side of the border that we need to be collaborating on.

• PADILLA: Well, that’s music to my ears, your familiarity with it, your history with it, your commitment to it as a priority. And yes, collaboration is key, not just with partners south of the border, but even within the federal government. We’ve brought to bear U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the intricacies of the State Department involvement here. So thank you for that.

• KRAMER: Absolutely.

Senator Padilla also questioned Brian Nesvik, nominee to be Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service at the Department of the Interior, highlighting the complexities of California’s water system and threats to the state’s water security and quality in the face of climate change. He urged Nesvik to roll up his sleeves on California water challenges and encouraged him to listen to career professionals at the Fish and Wildlife Service and experts within California’s state agencies to navigate complex water and wildlife issues.

Video of Padilla’s full line of questioning is available here.

Since 2018, 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 causing harmful impacts on public health, the environment, and water quality. U.S. military personnel, border patrol agents, and the local economy have also suffered harmful impacts from airborne and waterborne transboundary sewage flows. In 2023, sewage flowed across the border at the highest volume in a quarter century, exceeding 44 billion gallons.

Senator Padilla has prioritized addressing the Tijuana River pollution crisis since he first came to the Senate, recently working with the San Diego Congressional delegation to secure $250 million in the federal disaster relief package to clean up the Tijuana River. This marked the final tranche of funding required to complete the SBIWTP upgrade project. The SBIWTP project broke ground in October 2024, and over the coming years, the SBIWTP will double in capacity, reducing transboundary flows by 90 percent. Importantly, Mexico’s rehabilitated San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater treatment plant is expected to be fully operational by Spring 2025, further reducing flows to California communities. 

In response to a request from Padilla and the San Diego Congressional delegation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently opened an investigation into the public health impacts of air pollution caused by the ongoing Tijuana River transboundary pollution crisis. Senator Padilla and the delegation also recently secured a $200 million authorization for the Tijuana River Valley Watershed and San Diego County through the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 to help address the ongoing transboundary sewage crisis through stormwater conveyance, environmental and ecosystem restoration, and water quality protection projects. They also delivered over $103 million in additional funding for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) in the bipartisan FY 2024 appropriations package. Padilla previously successfully secured language in the FY 2023 appropriations package to allow the EPA to unlock $300 million previously secured in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to the IBWC for water infrastructure projects. Last year, Padilla and Representatives Peters and Vargas announced bicameral legislation to help combat the Tijuana River sewage pollution crisis.

More information on the hearing is available here.

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