Veolia Water North America-West, the federal government’s contractor tasked with maintaining its wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border, is the subject of a new lawsuit alleging failure to contain crossborder sewage.
On Monday, the Coronado Unified School District sued the plant operator and its manager, Mark Wippler, marking the first time a school district joins local municipalities, environmental groups and homeowners that are suing and previously sued the international engineering company and federal government.
San Diego-based Frantz Law Group, which opened a mass tort case late last year over similar claims, is representing the school district. It’s unclear whether other South County school districts may join or follow suit.
Coronado Unified alleges in its 29-page complaint that Veolia’s “negligent and reckless operation of the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant” has allowed repeated discharges of untreated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, which reach Coronado shorelines.
The district argues that students, faculty, and others have been exposed “to noxious fumes and odors in their homes and communities for an extended period of time.”
The district seeks damages for costs it says it has expended for “medical treatment of students and faculty, counseling for students’ fear of future physical injury, costs sufficient to cover the need for medical monitoring, and physical injury to real and personal property, and other economic damages.”
Coronado Unified, which serves more than 2,700 students at its five schools, says that students and faculty have suffered from headaches, lightheadedness, dizzy spells, asthma, nausea, breathing difficulties, stinging eyes and “other harms not yet known.”
In a statement Tuesday, Veolia acknowledged that South County residents “are deeply affected by Tijuana’s unchecked sewage crossing the border.” But denied blame, saying that Mexico is the source of pollution and not the treatment plant.
“The plaintiffs in this case would be better served if their lawyers pursued the source of the problem instead of the company trying to solve it,” Veolia said. “The claims in this lawsuit are misplaced, and Veolia’s hardworking local employees do not deserve to be blamed for the Mexican government’s failures.”
Veolia and the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) run the San Ysidro-based South Bay treatment plant that serves as a backstop for Tijuana sewage. The IBWC is the federal agency tasked with managing the South Bay plant and working with its Mexican counterparts to fix the sewage crisis.
The plant is supposed to treat 25 million gallons of sewage from the Mexican city and send flows into the ocean. But years of underinvestment in infrastructure on both sides of the border have led to consistent, toxic flows spilling over the border. Historic volumes of trash and sedimentation from unknown sources in Mexico in recent years have also compromised the IBWC’s repair efforts.
Projects to plug Tijuana’s leaky sewage system are underway on both sides of the border, though some have faced monthslong delays and others are years away from completion.
Late last month, Veolia settled lawsuits for $53 million that alleged some blame for lead-contaminated water in Flint, Mich., 10 years ago.
