At the December 2 Coronado City Council meeting, the Council provided updates on the cross-border water pollution item as part of their quarterly updates on the topic. City Manager Tina Friend referenced the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was signed by the United States and Mexico earlier this year and included a clause for Mexico to have initiated construction on a project to divert 10 million gallons per day of treated effluent from two wastewater treatment plants entering the Tijuana River and to rehabilitate the Parallel Gravity Line by December 31, 2025.
She also mentioned that as part of the City’s advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., they sent a letter to the office of the United States Trade Representative and have a representative who will be speaking on Coronado’s behalf to advocate for the inclusion of accountability assurances for wastewater treatment in the future in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Discussing the MOU, Councilmember Kelly Purvis mentioned that she would like to see the MOU address the future of this issue and account for factors like population growth.
In talking about the USMCA, Mayor John Duncan added that advocating for accountability in the USMCA would be a way to ensure plans are in place in the case that a plant goes offline. He noted there is currently discussion around a miles-long outfall pipe being constructed in Tijuana, as well as possibly building another treatment plant in Tijuana. Duncan also commented that he has been in touch with the IBWC Commissioner about the IBWC’s Citizens Advisory Committee, where he offered to serve another term on the committee now that the appointment process is expected to take place in the near future.
Councilmember Mark Fleming brought up the success of the Tijuana River Trash Boom project, which has been up and running and collected 250 tons of trash during a single storm event. He explained that the booms will be active in the river during the year from October through to July, and undergo maintenance during the off months in the dry season before going back online in October. He will also be touring the IBWC plant in the near future and will continue to meet with various organizations and officials in pursuit of a resolution to this issue.
Additionally, Fleming noted his support for adopting the revised resolution on the topic (“Resolution of the City Council of the City of Coronado Prioritizing Actions to Resolve the Cross-Border Water Pollution Crisis”) and thanked Councilmember Carrie Downey for her efforts in crafting the language for that document. The resolution includes requests for the federal government to increase funding for border water infrastructure projects focusing on transboundary flows. Downey credited Marv Heinze for his prior work convincing the National League of Cities to adopt said resolution.
Councilmember Amy Steward brought up the nanobubble pilot test and inquired about any updates. In response, Mayor John Duncan said they’ll have to wait for the IBWC to release their official report on the pilot, but that his understanding was that it was successful while it was up and running. After those results are released, he noted that he’s hopeful that there will be a follow-up to pursue a nanobubble proposal, and will keep the Council up to date on any future advisory committees or meetings on that, where they could be present and advocate for such action.
Some minor language suggestions were proposed for the revised resolution, including specific mention of advocating for longer term funding for the maintenance and construction budget for treatment plants, for including defined consequences for failure to comply with agreements that have been made between the two countries on this issue, and for the inclusion of industrial growth (in addition to population growth) as consideration for future planning to address the chemical and heavy metal pollution to waterways from maquiladora factories on the border.
At the meeting, three members of the Council (Duncan, Fleming, and Steward) discussed a minor update to the City’s adoption of the Historic Resources Inventory per a Policy No. 9 request previously made by Steward. Councilmembers Downey and Purvis were recused from the discussion due to their property’s proximity to a property that was up for debate in this item.
As a reminder, the Historic Resources Inventory was previously approved by the Council and created a 3-tiered list of properties evaluated for their potential for historic designation. At the meeting in which the Inventory was approved, Steward had requested time to complete a second review of some of the properties listed for Tier 3 (homes estimated not very likely to meet the criteria for a historic designation) to ensure they were placed in the most appropriate tier.
Steward worked with the Historical Association to re-review over 60 Tier 3 properties, and they determined 38 of those properties may benefit from a secondary examination. Steward took that list to City staff, who, along with an expert consultant, determined that it would be appropriate for eight of those homes to be moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 on the Inventory.
She also suggested the possibility of bringing back historic plaques or medallions for homes that have some level of significance to the community but may not fall under the criteria for historic designation, such as the Thomas-Dong home and Stockdale home.
The councilmembers present were amenable to reassigning those eight homes under the condition that those property owners are given notification and a 60-day period for them to be able to appeal or otherwise communicate with the City about the proposed change before it comes back before the Council for final approval. This update to the Inventory listings has no bearing on whether the eight homes in question are or are not historic, but a shift to a Tier 2 listing would require the owners to go through the Determination of Historic Significance review prior to any demolition of any original features of the property that are visible from the street right-of-way.
During the meeting, three people were also appointed to serve on the Parks and Recreation Commission. Brad Morris will be serving a partial, one-year term, while David Reis and Flavio Velez will each be serving a full two-year term.
Additionally, the Council voted to adopt the revised fees and Recreation Facility Use Policy and to authorize the City Manager to execute the agreements of deferral of payment for Wastewater Capacity Fees for two properties being built (the new restaurant at the Ferry Landing and the “Baby Grand” Hotel, which was formerly La Avenida Inn at 1315 Orange Avenue). The deferral agreement includes an interest rate that will allow the City to recoup the cost of those services, structured within the given payment installments agreed upon with each entity. With these agreements, the users will be reimbursing the City for the cost of constructing the sewer infrastructure and purchasing the capacity for use of the regional system, and the City will be able to use those collected fees for future improvement and replacement projects on Coronado’s wastewater system.
The next city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 16, at 4 p.m. at City Hall. For more information, please visit the City’s website at https://www.coronado.ca.us/449/Agendas-Minutes.
VOL. 115, NO. 50 – Dec. 10, 2025