I’m sure nobody else watched this video but it’s very interesting. In short, the US is/will be spending billions of dollars to treat Mexican wastewater from Tijuana that is currently impacting Southern California. This won’t fix the issue, but will make it better.
TLDR summary:
1. Tijuana lacks adequate sewer systems and does not have enough wastewater treatment capacity. As a result untreated waste is dumping into the pacific via a river. Beaches have been closed in California for years because of dangerous water quality.
2. For some reason the US has built and is operating a 25 million gallon a day wastewater treatment plant to treat Mexico’s wastewater. It doesn’t have enough capacity. But even if it did the Mexican infrastructure can’t collect and deliver the wastewater to be treated.
3. The US is funding and expansion of our WWTP from 25 to 50 MGD. The lady that runs this thing says this is a $600,000,000 job (that Congress gave them money for). She also mentions $150,000,000 in upgrades to the existing plant. New BNR treatment costs minimum $30/gal. They are using progressive design build which will add to the cost, plus it’s a federal job. I’d bet a paycheck this ends up being a billion dollar job (25mgd * $30/gal + $150mil upgrades to existing plant + cost for federal work and db delivery).
4. They mention similarities to Pure water Oceanside. I had a minor role on the design for that facility. It takes wastewater, treats it basically to drinking water standards, and dumps it in the ground for use as a potable water source. That facility cost $158 million for 4.5 mgd. Which means this project will easily be over a billion dollars.
5. Then the lady goes into capital planning, SCADA systems and asset management. Further billions the US will spend to treat Mexican wastewater in the future.