The Trump administration has made progress on solving the Tijuana River sewage crisis, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completing a review ahead of schedule and announcing that more project timelines aimed at mitigating the impacts of raw sewage flowing into the United States from Mexico have been reduced.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, met with his Mexican counterpart in July to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to finally put a stop to the decades-long sewage problem that has been making Americans sick.
As Breitbart News reported in July, the U.S. and Mexico entered into a treaty to deal with the crisis during the Biden administration, but Mexico had failed to obligate a staggering portion of the funds allotted:
The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty known as “Minute 328” to deal with the crisis in 2022, with the Mexican government committing $144 million and the U.S. committing $350 million to sewage management projects.
Zeldin revealed Thursday that Mexico still has yet to obligate a whopping $93 million of those funds, but that would change with the new MOU. “Mexico will obligate the remaining $93 million of Minute 328 funds that they hadn’t yet obligated,” an EPA press release states.
The deadline for Minute 328 projects has also been moved up, and several side projects in Mexico have been added to the docket to account for Tijuana’s future population growth and maintenance costs. The projects must now be completed no later than December 31, 2027 — four years ahead of schedule, in some cases.
According to the San Diego Coastkeeper, the crisis “is primarily attributed to a combination of outdated infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, and natural factors.”
“The core of the issue lies in the sewage treatment plant’s inability to cope with the volume of wastewater generated by Tijuana’s rapid population growth and urban expansion,” environmental lawyer Phillip Musegaas wrote in May 2024. “Many of the city’s sewer lines and the treatment facility itself are antiquated and were not designed to handle such a heavy load, leading to frequent overflows and breakdowns.”
Whatever the reason for Mexico’s wastewater management problems, over 100 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with industrial chemicals and garbage have poured into the Tijuana River and San Diego County since 2018, the Associated Press reported.
A Thursday update from Zeldin’s EPA revealed that a 100-day review of all existing Minute 328 infrastructure projects, scheduled to be completed on November 1, was finished two days ahead of schedule and found promising results.
Since signing the MOU, the Trump administration and its Mexican partners at the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) have been able to “slash roughly 12 years of construction time across all projects,” and the latest review has found an additional nine-month reduction, the EPA told Breitbart News in a statement.
“In addition to the nine-month reduction, this review also found that every project is on track to meet previously negotiated deadlines which were accelerated in the MOU, affirming that progress continues to be made across the board,” the statement reads.
Zeldin said the Trump administration is doing “everything in its power to urgently and permanently deliver the 100 percent solution to the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis that the residents of Southern California have demanded for decades.”
“Reducing timelines for existing infrastructure projects is a sign of great progress and demonstrates how both the United States and Mexico are faithfully upholding their agreed-upon responsibilities from July’s MOU,” he continued. “Through intensive collaboration, we were able to cut through red tape, identify efficiencies, and overcome bureaucratic hurdles. While substantial construction work lies ahead, this represents a crucial step in our commitment to protect American communities from cross-border pollution.”
In addition to working on physical construction projects, the next steps in implementing the MOU include releasing a joint public update and signing a new treaty “Minute” by the end of the year, the EPA said.
Speaking with Breitbart News at the EPA’s Washington, DC, headquarters earlier this week, Zeldin said his agency has been “full steam ahead” on the sewage crisis despite the ongoing government shutdown, adding that President Donald Trump has told him that it is a “very important priority” of his.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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