Marvel Harrison at her home that overlooks the Imperial Beach Pier, Sept. 11, 2024. Veolia Water North America, the private company hired by the federal government to operate and maintain the wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border, is being sued by Imperial Beach homeowners for failing to fix the malfunctioning facility that repeatedly allows raw sewage to pollute the Tijuana River Valley.
Attorneys Stephen B. Morris and Lance Rogers, both residents of Imperial Beach, are representing residents. The exact number of class members is unknown at this time, plaintiffs said, but they believe that many thousands of residents own homes in the small, coastal community with a population of about 27,000.
“We never envisioned having a house on the beach,” she said. “But we worked hard and put everything we had into this property. We kind of had a plan that we’d have a lot of guests and enjoy the beach together.” Veolia, an international company managing public and private projects, and the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission run a San Ysidro-based treatment plant that serves as a backstop for Tijuana sewage. The IBWC is the federal agency tasked with managing the South Bay plant and working with its Mexican counterparts to fix the sewage crisis.
Two environmental groups filed a complaint earlier this year. In 2018, South Bay cities and the Port of San Diego also sued the federal agency over Clean Water Act violations. The case was settled in 2022, leading to $300 million in funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to double the capacity of the South Bay plant. But the IBWC acknowledged last year that the funds would fall short because costs to repair and expand the deteriorating plant had increased to nearly $1 billion.