Gavin Says Mexicans Agree Sewer Plant Must Be Built

Ambassador to Mexico John Gavin said Thursday that Mexican officials are “in agreement” that a border sewage treatment plant must be built, despite Mexico’s withdrawal of a request for a $46.4-million loan to finance an expansion of Tijuana’s sewage system.

Gavin confirmed that Mexico’s request for the loan from the Inter-American bank was “put on hold” by Mexican officials. But he said that three meetings scheduled in February between U.S. and Mexican officials to discuss the decade-long dispute over Tijuana sewage will still be held.

San Diego city officials have long complained about sewage that flows from Tijuana into the United States, fouling the land and beaches and permeating the air with disagreeable odors.

The ambassador spoke at a press conference attended by American and Mexican reporters after ceremonies to dedicate the new border crossing at Otay Mesa. The press conference was also attended by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego), who earlier had warned Mexico against developing Mesa de Otay in Tijuana without first building the sewage treatment plant to serve it and the rest of the burgeoning city.

Gavin raised the ire of Mexican officials last week when he publicly opposed the loan to expand Tijuana’s water and sewage system unless a sewage treatment plant was included in the plans.

“It was the U.S. position that plans (for expanding Tijuana’s water and sewage system) should not go ahead until a sewage treatment plant was included . . . There should not be any construction unless there are also plans for a treatment plant. As far as I know, Mexican officials are in agreement with this,” Gavin said.

A State Department official announced Wednesday that Mexico had withdrawn its loan application last week.

Gavin and Hunter said the main stumbling block to construction of the treatment plant is that the two governments cannot agree on the location of the treatment plant. U.S. officials want the plant to be built on the border on the U.S. side, while Mexican officials favor an area south of Tijuana.

“Mexican engineers want the plant to be located about five miles south of the border in an agriculture area so the reclaimed water can be used for irrigation,” Hunter said.

Both Gavin and Hunter said that other differences remain over the size of the plant and what technology to use. But they labeled these disagreements as minor.

Meetings designed to iron out these differences are scheduled in Tijuana on Feb. 4, in Mexico City on Feb. 12 and again in Tijuana on Feb. 26.

“At the end of that time we hope to have a solution that is mutually acceptable,” Gavin said. “We hope for the best plan possible.”

State Department officials in Washington told The Times that new pumping facilities on the Mexican side are about 75% complete. At present, a treatment plant is not included in the Mexican plans. The facilities are designed to pump sewage up the hills and into the ocean 3.5 miles south of the border. But American officials want the new facilities to tie in to a treatment plant built on the U.S. side that would deposit the treated effluent in the Pacific Ocean.

Technical staffs from both countries met in November to discuss their differences, said a State Department spokesman, who also said that meetings between Gavin and Mexican officials at a policy level have not been held.

But on Thursday, Gavin said that he has “met with Mexican government leaders many times,” to discuss their views on how to deal with the sewage.

State Department officials told The Times that the United States does not want to oppose the $46.4-million loan. “But we can’t ignore the fact that (Mexico’s) new water facilities don’t take into account our sewage problems,” one official said.

This official, who asked not to be identified, said the controversy over the loan resulted from “circumstances.”

“We need a solution on sewage and the Mexicans were moving ahead on a loan to build facilities that would cause more sewage. That left us in a situation of a loan going ahead without an answer to our problem,” the official said.

U.S. government officials have speculated that the Mexicans are resisting building the treatment plant on the U.S. side because of national pride.

“We want to emphasize that this (building the plant on the U.S. side) is not because the Mexicans cannot run technical facilities,” one official said.

Thursday’s press conference was punctuated by a verbal sparring match between Gavin and Mexican reporters. Gavin, who said that Mexican reporters frequently misreport the facts about him, has openly expressed his dislike of the Mexican media.

Times staff writer David Smollar, in Washington, contributed to this story.