Major pipe in Tijuana fails, dumping 11.5M gallons of raw sewage daily into Tijuana River

A critical sewer pipe in Tijuana has collapsed, dumping a daily flow of 11.5 million gallons of raw sewage into the Tijuana River, the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission said Friday.

Tijuana’s Insurgentes Collector failed overnight and repairs are underway to repair it as soon as possible, the IBWC said in a post on X.

The binational commission added that the collapse has not impacted the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which sits on the U.S. side of the border.

The collapse comes weeks after the Trump administration’s latest agreement with Mexico to expedite upgrades to the country’s wastewater infrastructure.

The agreement is part of what administration officials have vowed will be a “100% permanent solution” to the cross-border pollution crisis that’s marred southern San Diego County’s coastline for decades.

Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, who represents South County and has worked to get San Diego County more involved in fixing the sewage crisis, called the collapse “the latest blow in our ongoing public health crisis.”

“For families living near the Tijuana River, the clock hasn’t just run out – it has been broken for years,” Aguirre said. “We can no longer be held hostage by slow-moving international repairs.”

The Insurgentes Collector, which collects sewage from smaller residential pipes, runs near the confluence of the Tijuana and Alamar rivers.

Previous collapses have hit the colle...