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SURFRIDER FOUNDATION WINS CASE FOR CLEANER OCEANS ON U.S./MEXICAN BORDER!
 
For Immediate Release		
Contact:   Pierce Flynn, Ph.D., Surfrider0@aol.com
August 3, 1995					 714/492-8170
	
San Diego, California-- The Surfrider Foundation through a federal 
lawsuit forced several government agencies to re-evaluate their plans to 
construct a cross-border wastewater treatment plant using a more 
cost-effective, environmentally- friendly solution. 
 
"This is the beginning step to improving the water quality of San Diego.  
San Diego surfers and ocean enthusiasts have reached their limits of 
patience with the existing water quality conditions.  Surfrider 
Foundation is ecstatic to have been involved in solving this long 
existing pollution problem." said Terrence McCann, President of the 
Surfrider Foundation.
 
The settlement agreement requires the federal government to prepare 
supplemental Environmental Impact Statements analyzing the environmental 
impacts of, and alternatives to, interim discharges of the IBWC 
wastewater treatment plant at the U.S./ Mexican border on the Tijuana 
River near Imperial Beach, California. The court ruled that the 
government agencies failed to adequately study and summarize the effects 
of this toxic discharge to the near shore area, i.e. the surf zone. 
 
Surfrider Foundation, represented on a pro-bono basis by attorney and 
Board of Director Gary Sirota and San Diego attorney, Rory Wicks, with 
the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club as co-plaintiffs, filed this 
lawsuit last spring against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the 
Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. section of the International 
Boundary and Water Commission, based on violations of CEQA (California 
Environmental Quality Act), NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) 
and the Clean Water Act, for failing to provide adequate studies in the 
Environmental Impact Statement which was prepared for the project. 
 
Additionally, under the settlement agreement, the government must 
evaluate the use of a biological "pond" sewage treatment plant instead of 
a conventional secondary sewage treatment plant, ponds being both more 
cost effective and environmentally effective; the use in the greater 
Tijuana area of reclaimed water from the project; the environmental 
impacts of discharges from a planned ocean outfall; Mexico's ability to 
remove industrial wastes, toxic metals and compounds from the sewage; and 
Mexico's ability to dispose of the sludge generated by a conventional 
sewage treatment plant.
 
The Tijuana River has been a major source of pollution to San Diego 
beaches for decades.  Mexican sewage, containing toxic chemicals and 
heavy metals, flows down the river and enters the ocean at the Tijuana 
Sloughs, a famous big wave surfing area used since the 1930's, that is 
now too polluted for human contact. Imperial Beach is one of the most 
polluted beaches in California, being closed a substantial portion of 
last year.  The proposed IBWC wastewater treatment plant was an effort to 
solve this pollution problem. However, it did not take into account the 
environmental impacts of the toxic nature of the Tijuana sewage, nor 
investigate feasible alternatives to the plant's ocean outfall. 
 
"Our intention is to speed up and raise the overall effectiveness of the 
'solution to pollution' along the U.S./Mexican border in a way that will 
stand the test of time," said Dr. Pierce Flynn, Executive Director of 
Surfrider Foundation.
 
This victory is the first step to finally solving the pollution problem 
that San Diego County has endured for years in a cost effective way for 
tax payers and in an evironmentally responsible manner that protects 
ocean users.
 
The Surfrider Foundation is a 25,000 member non-profit environmental 
organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's 
waves and beaches, for all people, through conservation, advocacy, 
research and education.
 
World Wide Web Site:  http://www.sdsc.edu/surfrider