EPA announcement most promising news yet on local sewage nightmare

Thursday’s announcement by U.S. EPA chief Lee Zeldin that the Trump administration had reached a “100% permanent solution” to the Tijuana River Valley sewage ordeal in negotiations with Mexico is great news. For years, leaders in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento have treated closed beaches and health risks to residents, tourists, Navy SEALs and border agents in San Diego County as mostly a local issue. In so doing, former President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom failed 3 million-plus San Diegans — and, in his first term, so did President Donald Trump.

Now, however, Zeldin has finally gotten the U.S. government to use the many ways it can bring pressure on Mexico to force concessions on funding and construction timelines for sewage improvements in the Tijuana area. Per a joint statement from Zeldin and Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Mexico’s secretary of the environment and natural resources, infrastructure fixes on both sides of the border are supposed to be done by Dec. 31, 2027 — far earlier than previous assumptions.

Reflecting a point long made by the U-T Editorial Board — that all it took for quick improvements on the U.S. side of the border was decisive leadership — the EPA thinks it is realistic for the treatment capacity of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Ysidro to be increased from 25 million to 35 million gallons per day by late August — of this year.

Yes, of course, there are reasons to worry this all sounds too good to be true. The announcement comes against a backdrop of Trump conflicts with California over immigration enforcement, environmental rules and much more. It’s also striking that Zeldin’s plan comes at a time when the EPA seems less interested in problem-solving than at any time since its 1970 founding — including asserting that states should take over many federal environmental responsibilities.

So perhaps the Zeldin initiative will wither or be abandoned. But for now, it is clearly the most promising development yet in our long local nightmare.