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05/02/2008: "Mexicali can't win when it comes to its water pollution problem"

Between Two Rivers: The e-coli stop here

A new chapter is being written in the 100-year saga of our notorious New River . Last year, a new treatment plant became operational, and finally most of Mexicali ’s raw sewage was being treated. Fecal coliform levels in the New River at the international boundary dropped several magnitudes, and regional officials were rejoicing that decades of effort were paying off in a big way. The River was not clean, but it could no longer claim its place as one of the dirtiest rivers in the world.

This was the good news. Now for the bad. At a meeting of the International Boundary and Water Commission’s Colorado River Citizens’ Forum on March 3, Jose Angel from the California Regional Water Board reported that recent testing showed river contamination levels back up to levels approaching raw sewage.

The news was especially disturbing to US officials because our tax money had in large part paid for a state-of-the-art pumping station, 27 kilometers of pipe, and a $12 million bank of treatment lagoons to send the water south toward the Colorado River delta. What had gone wrong?

Francisco Bernal, an engineer with the Mexican section of the Boundary and Water Commission was asked if the recent earthquakes might have damaged the pumps. After his very lengthy answer, I wrote in my notes “earthquakes not responsible for sewage bypass into New River.”

In fact, the CESPM ( Mexicali ’s public works) had purposefully bypassed raw sewage into the New River instead of pumping it south as agreed. The bypass began on February 19 and ended March 12. You see, a second irate party has objected to Mexicali pollution.

South of the treatment plant is another “river” formed by agricultural run-off: the Hardy River. Upwards of 1000 vacation homes have been built along the Rio Hardy, most of them occupied by Americans who enjoy fishing, skiing, and the generally laid back atmosphere.

Back in December of 2007, residents noticed that Rio Hardy smelled a little funny. River users had the water tested, and discovered it was no longer safe for human contact. This coincided with treated sewage from Las Arenitas lagoons flowing into an agricultural drain and then into the Rio Hardy. Though the river camps are more than 20 river miles south of the sewage lagoons, there seemed to be no other explanation for the contamination.

Meetings with CESPM officials ensued, and apparently residents had enough clout to persuade them to bypass about 320 liters per second of raw sewage directly into the New River--and into the United States.

Diplomatic heat brought the situation to a full boil, with California Senator Diane Feinstein intervening via our EPA and State department. That’s why the waste water was once again fully pumped south. But the story gets worse.

On a tour of Las Arenitas on March 27, we were taken a couple of miles south of the treatment lagoons along the pipeline sending treated water toward Rio Hardy. There in the middle of open desert, CESPM had sledge-hammered open the pipe and was allowing the water to gush out into the sand.

We were told that the water had been properly treated via a 19 day trip through the lagoons. But this water still exuded a foul stench and ran gray-green and very turbid.

Three days after our tour, on March 30, a friend and I returned to trace the flow of water in the desert. The CESPM officials had told us they had diverted it to a “farmer’s land.” US government officials were satisfied that the water was at least going south and not into our country. But I needed to know if the water was actually ending up on farmland.

From the break in the pipe we had to make several giant loops to keep tabs on the water flowing through a low area going south. We noticed a CESPM truck paralleling our course some distance away. We reached the fields of wheat alongside the highway at the village of La Puerta and headed back north. There we saw a stream of water inching southward like the flickering tongue of a snake.

The CESPM official arrived at the same spot a few minutes after we did, accompanied by a single worker wielding a shovel. “Where’s the water coming from?” I asked him. “A well in the desert,” he said. Then he raised his worried eyes to the fields about 300 yards distance, and said ruefully, “It’s getting awfully close to that wheat.”

That was last Sunday. I’d bet plenty of money that today, that treated but foul-smelling smelling sewage water is still being dumped into the desert.

Jesus Mosqueda, owner of Campo Mosqueda along the Rio Hardy told me, “This is the only river Mexicali has. They have to keep it clean.” He was hopeful for a solution by April 15.

The Mexicali water officials now know what Octavio Paz meant when he said, “Poor Mexico. So far from God, so close to the United States .” Now Mexicali is an even worse position. They can’t send water north to the United States , and they can’t send it south to Rio Hardy. Where will they send it?