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Zeldin Lays Out How the MOU with Mexico Achieves a 100% Solution to the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis, Aug. 18, 2025

August 18, 2025 · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 0:07:06

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What happened

In a video message released by the EPA on August 18, 2025, Administrator Lee Zeldin laid out the Memorandum of Understanding he had signed in Mexico City the previous month, which he stated will achieve a permanent and durable 100% solution to the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis when fully implemented. He organized the agreement around three goals, as he stated them: Mexico obligates $93 million for previously agreed Mexico-side projects; timelines for those projects are compressed; and many new Mexico-side projects are added so the crisis does not return.

On the details, as Zeldin stated them: Mexico will pay the $93 million over the 2026 and 2027 budget cycles so key projects can be completed by December 31, 2027 or sooner; Mexico agreed to begin construction before the end of 2025 on two projects — diverting 10 million gallons per day of treated effluent upstream of the Rodriguez Dam, and rehabilitating the Parallel Gravity Line — after which the U.S. would release previously appropriated funds for Pump Station 1 and the Tijuana River Gates; and the U.S. is expanding the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego by 10 million gallons per day, fast-tracked, as he stated it, from two years to 100 days. A new binational “Minute” through the International Boundary and Water Commission would add a dozen further actions, including a Tijuana water infrastructure master plan and a real-time binational monitoring system, as he described them.

Why it matters

The Tijuana River crisis — raw sewage flowing into Southern California, with beach closures and foul air as Zeldin described them — is the Zeldin EPA’s signature binational cleanup commitment, and the deadlines and dollar figures he states here are the public yardstick for it.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Tijuana River MOU commitments as Zeldin stated them on August 18, 2025 — Mexico’s $93 million obligation across 2026–2027, project completion by December 31, 2027 or sooner, and the 100-day South Bay plant expansion. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Administrator Zeldin on How MOU with Mexico Achieves 100% Solution to Tijuana River Sewage Crisis” (Aug. 18, 2025, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Administrator Zeldin).