Stakeholders say a recent legal settlement will help curb water pollution along the Tijuana-San Diego portion of the U.S.-Mexican border. Three lawsuits filed in 2018 pitted the California-based Surfrider Foundation and various California state agencies against the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), the binational entity that oversees U.S-Mexico water agreements and boundary issues. Plaintiffs contended the USIBWC was violating the U.S. Clean Water Act by permitting contamination of the Tijuana River which flows into the United States near Tijuana and into the Pacific Ocean at a state park in Imperial Beach, California. In April, the parties announced a legal settlement requiring new wastewater-treatment and pollution-control infrastructure on both sides of the border. The improvements will be carried out in phases and overseen jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico’s National Water Commission (Conagua), the two agencies... [Log in to read more]