… The state Senate passed two bills by Sen. Steve Padilla aimed at protecting the polluted Tijuana River Valley. One would authorize using funds from the new East Otay Mesa toll road for the South Bay International Boundary and Water Commission sewage treatment facility, which filters sewage from Mexico and discharges the treated water to the Pacific Ocean. The other would prohibit a state agency from approving a new landfill, until the local agency that oversees waste facilities has held a public hearing on the project and certified that it won’t harm an environmentally burdened community. It’s aimed at the East Otay Mesa Recycling Collection Center and Landfill, which was passed by ballot measure 15 years ago. This is Padilla’s second stab at this issue. Last year he proposed a related bill that would have prohibited a regional water board from issuing a waste discharge permit for a new landfill in the Tijuana River Valley. That bill failed on the Assembly floor, but Padilla is trying again. 

Other Tijuana River news:

• Eagle & Times (Coronado, Calif.): IBWC Citizen Forum update on wastewater treatment plant project