Border Patrol turns to private sector to solve some sewage problems affecting agents on the beat

• Customs and Border Protection is soliciting ideas for addressing some of the problems its agents face from contaminated water flowing across the international border.
• The agency is seeking solutions from private industry and could award contracts to projects it likes.
• The move was spurred by health complaints, including rashes and respiratory problems, from Border Patrol agents who work in the Tijuana River Valley where the polluted water flows.

With health complaints continuing from Border Patrol agents who work the polluted areas of the Tijuana River Valley, the federal Customs and Border Protection agency is quietly trying to solve some of the problems of toxic sewage flows from Mexico — on its own.

The agency posted a notice on a federal contracting website last week seeking ideas from private industry on how to get a handle on cross-border sewage and hazardous materials that flow through the area, and which Border Patrol agents are routinely exposed to.

The posting, formally known as a Request for Information, is the first step in what could become a full-blown contract award by the agency. The notice, titled “CBP Wastewater Initiative,” marks a move into an area — engineering and environmental solutions — that the massive law enforcement agency does not normally delve into.

It also marks a new opening in the escalating battle to address the decades-long problem of sewage flows through the valley. On Friday a group of local governments, including Imperial Beach and the San Diego Unified Port District, announced a lawsuit against the federal government for failing to stop the repeated discharges of polluted water into the valley.

That litigation could take years to resolve. Meanwhile CBP is taking steps to at least alleviate — not necessarily solve — the problems faced by its agents.

The move is likely a response to increasing alarm sounded by the union for Border Patrol agents about health problems that Border Patrol agents assigned to Imperial Beach have experienced. Chris Harris, a union representative, said that some 83 agents have reported headaches, rashes, infections and other problems from contacting the water and breathing in the dust in the valley.

Harris praised the agency for taking the lead. He said the union has met with Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan about the problem and worked to start finding solutions.

“We don’t have engineers and scientists coming out of the woodwork,” Harris said of CBP. “They are saying we can’t wait any more... The EPA has not been helpful, and neither has the state.

“Can you imagine if you had a city where sewage was running down the streets, and it was the Police Department that said we are going to solve it? Where’s the water department or the sewer department? That’s the situation we are in.”

CBP said in a statement the agency isn’t going out on its own and will still work with other entities to seek a solution.

“This effort is only addressing one part of this complicated issue. CBP continues to work closely with its inter-agency partners at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of State (DoS), the Department of Treasury, and the United States International Boundary and Water Commission to develop a whole-of-government approach to resolving this large-scale infrastructure issue, to include robust engagement with the Government of Mexico.”

The agency said the cost of its efforts cannot be projected until solutions surface through the Request for Information process.

While health concerns of agents were a factor, the statement also said that CBP was “spurred by the continued risks the trans-boundary wastewater and hazardous flows pose to its mission as a whole, which includes not only the health and life safety risks to its U.S. Border Patrol Agents, but also its mission support personnel and individuals it apprehends in performance of its mission.”

The notice said that agents have to routinely inspect a network of culverts that run under the border fencing and barriers that carry water to look for unauthorized immigrants and smugglers.

While the culverts should only be wet during and after a storm, they are often carrying water during dry periods — a result of the lack of sewage infrastructure in Tijuana and illegal dumping, authorities have said. Several of the canyons that cross the border empty into collectors that capture the dry-weather flows for eventual pumping to a sewage treatment plant on the U.S. side of the border.

“Known and unknown contaminants pose operational and health risks to Border Patrol agents operating in the area,” the notice reads.

The agency asks for a range of solutions, including automated equipment that would allow agents to no longer patrol the area on foot, as well as “engineering fixes to the canyon collector infrastructure to neutralize the risk of the hazardous material contained in the water or eliminate the water that pools in the collectors.”

The agency also wants ideas for a “suite of technology” that would allow agents to remotely monitor culvert grates and spillways, alerting “personnel of imminent risks so they can take precautionary measures to limit exposure.”

Ideas are due in mid-March. As a sign that the agency is seriously considering purchasing solutions there is an “industry day” already scheduled for San Diego in April. At those events government officials and contractors interested in a procurement discuss the goals of a project, possible scheduled and get feedback from industries about a proposal.

Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com