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Example video title will go here for this video Villa Sewage Treatment Equipment
SAN DIEGO — Mexico broke ground on a new Wastewater treatment plant in Punta Bandera and those living in Imperial Beach said it's a long time coming.
It’s so frustrating because you live here to be on the ocean, you live here to be on the coast and when you can’t partake of the ocean you can’t partake in the coast, that’s a really drag, it really is," Eric Purviance, resident said.
One of the causes of the water’s contamination is the San Antonio de los Buenos treatment plant in Punta Bandera. It’s outdated and needs repairs.
"There’s three huge lagoons of waste of 10 feet deep sludge of nothing but untreated sewage that gets mixed in with chlorine and is discharged into the ocean that is what they determined treatment, that’s not treatment," Mayor Paloma Aguirre, Imperial Beach said.
The sewage from Tijuana makes it’s way to San Diego County beaches. Most are familiar with the smell.
"The urine smell is pretty evident," Purviance said.
"It usually has a very toxic smell. The smell of backed up sewage. If your sink were to back up or you toilet were to back up that kind of what it smells like," Tim Denike, resident said.
The new treatment plant will remove solids and with a series of different treatments, be clean enough to be used for commercial irrigation or agricultural use.
But it’s just one part of the solution the San Ysidro Water plant also needs renovation.
"Mexico got their act together. As you know Congress is still debating the request from our president for the additional $310 million that our needed to fix our treatment plant on our side," said Aguirre.
But the mayor is hopeful and so are those that live here.
"To have the waste treatment plant finally get taken care of that’s an amazing thing. Surfers can go back in, people can go back to diving, kids can enjoy, mom can let the kids get back in the water again," Purviance said.
The plant is supposed to be done by September but it could still take years for the beaches to be clean.
WATCH RELATED: Cross-Border Contamination | Earth 8 Special
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