The State Water Resources Control Board on Thursday opened the grant application period, making the $46 million in funding available for eligible projects that address contamination in the cross-border rivers and coastal waters. Projects that achieve load reductions of bacteria or trash, address public health issues associated with transboundary pollution, and support restoration and mitigation, and sediment management will be awarded through a competitive process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This funding targets real, on-the-ground improvements while the state continues to press the Trump administration to fulfill its responsibility.<\/p>\n
California is continuing to step up as the federal government, which is responsible for the key wastewater treatment facility on the Tijuana River, has yet to deliver a permanent fix \u2014 despite EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin\u2019s commitment to a \u201c100% solution\u201d in July 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In May, Governor Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for communities impacted and urge Administrator Zeldin to meet the administration\u2019s obligation<\/a> to deliver interagency cooperation, repair wastewater treatment infrastructure, and improve monitoring of the Tijuana River.<\/p>\n Understanding the cross-border pollution crisis<\/p>\n The Tijuana River flows from Mexico into the United States. In South San Diego County, the river is increasingly degraded by sewage, trash, and other debris from upstream regions just over the border in Mexico, including the city of Tijuana. The federal government is responsible for a wastewater treatment plant (the International Boundary Commission\u2019s South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Ysidro) is responsible for treating water in the river, but has fallen far short. As a result, pollutants accumulate in Smuggler\u2019s Gulch, a collection system that includes gates to intercept and divert trash before it reaches the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n The New River is a severely polluted inland waterway that flows north across the border and through the city of Calexico and continues to the Salton Sea, some 60 miles away. While discharges from U.S. sources are treated and disinfected to meet state and federal standards, the water entering the country contains raw sewage, industrial, domestic, and agricultural waste, trash, and other solid pollutants \u2014 largely due to Mexicali\u2019s overburdened and deteriorating infrastructure.<\/p>\n Addressing the Tijuana River crisis\u00a0<\/p>\n The Governor continues to advocate for the Trump administration to fund repairs and quickly complete infrastructure to protect public health and end the environmental crisis at the Tijuana River.\u00a0 The state has called on the federal government to:<\/p>\n Work with Mexico to ensure the full suite of projects negotiated to address this crisis are funded and implemented.\u00a0<\/p>\n Repair and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, Governor Newsom secured critical funding and support to address cross-border pollution<\/a> from the Tijuana River, The Governor has urged the White House, the State Department, U.S. EPA, and Congress to take action and dedicate more funds to the International Wastewater Treatment Plant \u2014 the facility that treats Tijuana sewage before it reaches the Pacific Ocean \u2014 which resulted in an additional $100 million federal investment. California stands ready to assist the federal government as it fulfills its responsibility to address the crisis on the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2019, California has allocated approximately $38 million for Tijuana River water quality improvements, including:<\/p>\n $1 million to fund Tijuana River Valley Recovery Team projects in the Tijuana River Valley. What the new funding will support<\/p>\n At least one project from each river will be selected. Of the $46 million grant program, the maximum grant amount for planning or research projects is $750,000, and $10 million for implementation projects. The Implementation Project\u2019s maximum grant amount may go up to $20 million with State Water Board Deputy Director approval. No more than $3 million will be provided for planning or research projects. For guidelines, eligibility, and procedures visit the Proposition 4 US Mexico Border Grant Program Guidelines webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Funding for this program was made available by Prop 4, the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act, approved by California voters in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Applications can be submitted online through the Board\u2019s FAAST Website<\/a>. A webinar will be held to help potential applicants with their application. More information, registration for the webinar, and required attachments can be found on the program webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Solicitations will be accepted from June 11, 8 a.m. through August 31, 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State Water Resources Control Board on Thursday opened the grant application period, making the $46 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-360100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n$9 million to operate and maintain Goat Canyon sediment and trash basins.
\n$4.7 million to Rural Community Assistance Corporation\u2019s Tijuana River Trash Boom pilot project.
\n$14.25 million for the Smuggler\u2019s Gulch Improvement Project.
\n$3.3 million for the Tijuana River Valley Habitat and Hydrology Restoration Project.
\n$3 million to develop a model to forecast the presence of pathogens in San Diego coastal and tidal waters and help measure the effectiveness of potential projects in the Tijuana River Valley.
\n$2.7 million to the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District allocated for 10,000 air purifiers.<\/p>\n