WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Representative Scott Peters filed a series of amendments to the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 25) State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) funding bill to increase salaries and construction funds for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which manages the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP). The amendments would increase the IBWC’s proposed $81.8 million salaries and expenses account by $8 million and the proposed  $168.5 million operations and maintenance account by $10 million. These funds are available for projects across the border, but it is expected that a substantial amount will be allocated to the SBIWTP, which processes wastewater that flows from Mexico into San Diego.

“In March, the San Diego delegation secured a historic funding increase to fix the broken SBIWTP, but I was clear then that it was not the end of the road in our fight to solve this problem,” said Rep. Peters. “While that funding is enough to get contracts signed, construction started, and keep work on schedule, we know that more will be needed over the years to finish the job. I will continue fighting, like I am today, to make sure San Diego gets all the resources it needs to end the cross-border sewage crisis.”

Rep. Peters also filed an additional amendment to SFOPS to grant other federal agencies, as well as local and state entities, the ability to provide additional funds for the SBIWTP. Last year, Rep. Peters successfully passed similar language, which needs to be approved every year. Rep. Peters also introduced an amendment to the FY 25 Homeland Security funding bill to recognize the importance of hazard pay for Customs and Border Protection officers working in contaminated waters.

Full text of Rep. Peters’ amendments here.

Background:

Representative Peters has, for years, worked to address the cross-border pollution that’s fouling San Diego’s coastal waters, to include pushing for additional funding to fix and expand the dilapidated South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP). The following are some recent actions:

2024

• In January, Rep. Peters took to the House floor to demand that the President’s requested $310 million to fix and expand the dilapidated SBIWTP be included in any upcoming spending deal.
• In February, Rep. Peters joined members of San Diego’s Congressional delegation to ask U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro about the effects cross-border pollution on Navy operations.
• In March, Rep. Peters secured $156 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission’s (IBWC) construction budget in the Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill. The IBWC is the federal agency tasked with operating and maintaining the SBIWTP.
• In May, Rep. Peters joined Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16) in a bipartisan request for $278 million for the IBWC’s construction budget in the Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations bill. at the center of the cross-border sewage crisis on the American side of the border.

2023

• In June, Rep. Peters led a letter with other members of the San Diego Congressional delegation to the governor of Baja California urging accountability for the Mexican government’s commitments to build wastewater treatment infrastructure.
• In July, members of the San Diego congressional delegation requested that the Environmental Protection Agency assist with directing environmental justice funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to help stop the flow of pollutants and urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to tour the broken plant.
• Also in July, they sent a letter to President Biden and submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, calling on the administration to declare this crisis a federal emergency.
• In August, he led two letters to the Office of Management and Budget and to OMB and the State Department, calling for urgent additional funding to confront this crisis. 
• In September, he proposed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill to boost U.S.- Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Grant Program funding. Additionally, he proposed two amendments to the Fiscal Year 2024 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill to boost annual construction funding to the USIBWC to $100 million.
• In October, Rep. Peters led a bipartisan letter to the Department of State demanding a full account of how the SBIWTP fell into such a severe state of disrepair.
• In December, he led a letter urging leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate to include President Biden’s $310 million supplemental budget request to repair the SBIWTP in any upcoming funding package.

In previous years, Peters along with colleagues, has secured funding, introduced legislation, called for investigations, and arranged a visit by EPA Administrator Regan in response to the wastewater contamination crisis. 

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