Elected officials across San Diego said Monday they hope that $5.7 million for the renovation of a key piece of infrastructure at a wastewater treatment plant that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego will be the first step in solving a decades long sewage-pollution problem that fouls the air and makes people sick.  … The South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant — under a joint U.S.-Mexican body called the International Boundary and Water Commission — treats sewage from Tijuana, but hasn’t been doing that since 2021 following the failure of a piece of the plant’s infrastructure. When Junction Box-1 is operable, it’s supposed to control the amount of wastewater coming into the plant from Tijuana before it’s treated and sent to the Pacific Ocean. Since 2021 though, the box — which sits mere feet away from the border wall — has been inoperable, meaning mounds of sewage passed through the plant without being treated. 

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