SAN YSIDRO South County beaches remain closed 20 days after a major sewage spill caused by a software malfunction and operator error at a sewage plant in San Ysidro.

At least 2 million gallons of raw sewage leaked into the Tijuana River earlier this month. The sewage does not continue to flow into the water. However, a pump at the border was taken offline as a result of the spill to prevent Tijuana River flow from coming across the border and continue streaming into the ocean.

Officials at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant are meeting today with the environmental groups that originally alerted the public to the incident. The accident highlights a chronic sewage pollution problem plaguing the border region costing hundreds of millions of dollars in both the United States and Mexico.

The groups hope to determine when the pump can be turned back on, and when the beaches can reopen. They also hope to discuss ways to alleviate the communication breakdown that prevented the public from knowing about the spill until more than a week after it occurred.

"I think its really important to clarify the misconception that theres raw sewage spilling into the ocean right now, thats not correct," said Paloma Aguirre, a spokeswoman for the environmental group WiLDCOAST. "Beach closures are indirectly a result of the sewage spill. The pump station should be working and we shouldnt have to worry about cross border flow coming onto our beaches."

The plant, which has never consistently met Clean Water Act standards, is controlled by an arm of the U.S. government known as the International Boundary and Water Commission. It treats waste water from Mexico to minimize contamination of South Bay waterways and beaches.

The company issued the following statement about the spill: We take this matter seriously and are investigating the event fully to ensure it doesnt happen again. We are currently reviewing both the technical aspect related to the software, as well as operator response to the overflow. Environmental health and public safety are the highest priority and core to our business.

The South Bay plant was built in the late 1990s to process about 25 million gallons of sewage a day from Tijuana before discharging it into the ocean.

wendy.fry@utsandiego.com; 619-293-1743; Twitter: @utsdFry

View original post here:

South County sewage spill problems continue