TUBAC, Arizona -- Nogales International is reporting a meeting was held in Tubac last Monday to discuss a big-ticket, tight-deadline proposal for local citizens concerned about the sewer line that runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico.
If they would support raising approximately $4.6 million locally, said Misael Cabrera, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, a federal agency would allocate another $21 million to rehabilitate the aging and problematic pipeline.
“I’m trying to find partners to solve the issue,” said Cabrera, who put together the public meeting at the Tubac Golf Resort. He apologized for holding the meeting on short notice, but even so, about 65 residents and local government officials attended.
Of those, just a handful seemed, by the end of the two-hour presentation, to support finding local funding for the sewer line, officially called the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI).
Cabrera said “an opportunity exists right now” in which the federal International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) is offering to potentially cover 78 percent of the approximately $25.6 million overhaul, if the other 22 percent is provided by local community members, stakeholders and private water users who benefit from the water coming to Arizona from Mexico.
For years, the sewer line has been in weak condition and local authorities have urged repair work.
“The unfortunate part is that IBWC has had this $21 million for some time. I don’t know exactly how long they’ve had it. They just didn’t tell anyone until very recently,” Cabrera said.
A spokeswoman with the IBWC disputed that narrative.
“This money has not been a secret, but has been a subject of discussions between counsel for the (IBWC) and the State of Arizona for some time,” public affairs officer Lori Kuczmanski said in an emailed statement, adding that the IBWC has accumulated the $21 million from Congress since 2010.
Cabrera said the IBWC gave him a June 30 deadline to respond to the shared-funding proposal, but he was able to extend it to July 13. That’s when ADEQ would have to say if there’s interest in raising the local funds, not come up with a funding guarantee.
Cabrera said work needs to start before the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 to ensure the funds are available for the IOI. After that date, he said, various IBWC projects will compete for the $21 million.
The Tubac and Tumacácori areas, north of the wastewater treatment plant, have been affected by sewer line breaks, Cabrera said. In late July 2017, when the line broke at Manhole 89 south of the plant between Ruby and Old Tucson roads, raw sewage spilled into Potrero Creek and the Santa Cruz River for about a week until repairs to the line began. The effects were seen in the river up to an area just south of Tucson.
“We detected elevated E.coli concentrations as far north as San Xavier bridge,” on Interstate 19, he said.
The sewer line is 45 years old and weak in many areas, Cabrera said. Similar systems are designed with a 25-to-30-year life, so that’s why the repairs are urgently needed, he said.
The proposed repair project consists of lining the entire 8.8-mile length of the sewer line with cured-in-place pipe, which is widely used for rehabilitation of sewer pipelines, he said.
As part of the shared-funding offer, the IBWC is also stipulating that a local entity “agree to handle operation and maintenance of the IOI pipeline in the future,” Cabrera said. That has been an area of disagreement over the years. Maintenance of the sewer line is the shared responsibility of the City of Nogales and the IBWC as the result of an arrangement dating to 1953, but the IBWC has tried in the past to absolve itself from the obligation and a lawsuit on the matter remains pending in federal court.
When asked the cost for the maintenance, Cabrera said estimates run from $250,000 to $500,000 a year, adding: “Those numbers are very rough.”
Another area of complexity, Cabrera said, is that in the future, Mexico could legally take back all the water it sends to the treatment plant in Rio Rico. However, that would require Mexico to build an expensive pipeline and pump.
Skeptical public
Cabrera also spent time talking about the value of the treated effluent, which leaves the wastewater plant in clean condition.
“There are lots of benefits to the region from the discharges into the Santa Cruz” River, he said, quantifying the effluent at approximately 13,000-acre-feet per year, or about 12 million gallons per day.
That recharge helps the riparian habitat, including trees and bushes along the river, which in turn creates an area that migrating birds visit every winter and spring.
In addition, the effluent replenishes the groundwater in the area, which is used for wells by private and public companies.
Without the treated effluent entering the river, the above-ground length of the waterway “would be reduced from about 18 miles to about 6.3 miles, or by about two-thirds,” he said.
About 14 people spoke during a question-and-answer session near the end of the meeting, most asking for more details about what would be done.
Ben Lomeli of Rio Rico, a member of the IBWC citizens advisory board and the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, said the work is urgently needed and the situation is an emergency. But he questioned why funds need to be collected from people north of the wastewater treatment plant.
“We don’t contribute one ounce of the sewage that goes to the facility," he said.
Shelley Kais of Sahuarita, a current candidate for the Arizona Senate, said she didn’t believe the IBWC needed an immediate answer from Cabrera and pointed out that the IBWC “is in a pre-solicitation phase and won’t award the contract” for some time.
Chris Ackerley, another Sahuarita resident who is running for the Arizona House, said: “You’re asking a local jurisdiction to handle a regional infrastructure problem,” which he didn’t support.
Allison Moore, vice-president at the Nogales-based Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, asked if the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality could be the partner if a local match isn’t found. Cabrera said ADEQ couldn’t fill that role.
Cabrera suggested that the $4.6 million in local funding might come by forming a domestic water improvement district, by which property owners would tax themselves to pay the cost. He also mentioned the possibility of nonprofits supporting the project or a federal grant, but didn’t say from what agency.
At the conclusion of the two-hour meeting, Cabrera asked people to vote if they were willing that day to sign a non-binding letter of intent to secure the local funding match. Few of the 65 attendees cast a vote, but according to ADEQ, nine voted “yes,” three voted “no” and seven cast votes saying they would possibly sign the letter after further discussion.