A sewer leak spilled over 600,000 gallons of sewage near the city of Nogales, Arizona, over the course of eight days in the summer of 2017.
It was not the first or the last time, but it was the most significant indicator of the sewer pipeline’s condition. Sewage leaks are common in Nogales, and they bring with them the rancid smell of wastewater throughout the city.
“All the way from City Hall to the border, which is about a mile-and-a-half or 2 miles, the smell is so bad,” Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino said regarding the sewage pipe that runs through the heart of downtown. “We’re standing right here next to the plant, and this doesn’t smell the way that it smells (in Nogales).”
That 9-mile sewage pipe that starts in Nogales, Sonora, and travels through Nogales, Arizona, to the plant in Rio Rico will finally be repaired, marked by a groundbreaking ceremony late last month at the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant. But some say the much needed repair of the International Outfall Interceptor, also referred to as the IOI, does not go far enough to address long lasting issues.
After years of planning, the city of Nogales secured $38 million in funding for the sewage pipe repair. Since 2010, Congress has annually appropriated funds to rehabilitate the IOI for a total of $34.2 million. About $1.36 million of cost was shared with Mexico, and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality provided $2.59 million in funding. Additionally, $1 million came from Freeport-McMoRan Inc., an American mining company founded in Phoenix.
“Infrastructure takes a while to build, it takes a while to plan, it takes a while to develop the correct solutions. And it takes a while to get the funding,” said Maria-Elena Giner, the commissioner for the International Boundary and Water Commission, a federal government agency that settles binational differences that include water, sanitation and water quality. “Even so it does take having strong advocates that are going to be pushing for this infrastructure. And we just had the right advocates.”
The fight for who would fund the project was ongoing, and much of the reason that it’s taken so long to get the project off the ground.
Previously, Mexico did not agree to share construction costs for the IOI and also stated that they did not have any responsibility for the operation and maintenance costs. According to the commission’s documents a resolution was approved for Mexico to fund $1.36 million of the IOI repair stating that the rehabilitation was necessary.
“Today we highlight what can occur when we give up conflict and contention and instead choose cooperation and collaboration,” said Misael Cabrera, the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. “Today we highlight what is possible when we stop finger-pointing and start problem-solving.”
‘Issues and deterioration’
Originally built in 1951 and then replaced in 1971 the condition of the pipeline was assessed in 2005 by Brown and Caldwell, an engineering consultant company in Tucson. They noted that the pipeline’s lifetime was 50 years and identified “significant pipeline issues and deterioration.”
The international water commission had previously spent $5 million in emergency repairs in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 combined, but this repair would be a semi-permanent repair, with a lifetime of 50 more years, according to spokesperson Lori Kuczmanski.
This repair comes right in time as 2022 will be it’s 51st year. It marks the binational generational efforts from past and present commissioners, mayors and representatives to keep the project alive.
The five-phase project will be performed by SAK Construction under a $13.8 million contract with the water commission for the first three phases. Each phase covers different stretches of the sewage pipe. Phases one through three cover 5.3 miles north from the international border and will be completed by October 2023.
Phases four and five, which have not yet been given a construction contract, cover 3.4 miles which ends at the wastewater treatment plant in Rio Rico and is anticipated to be completed by October 2024.
The repair will consist of trenchless technology and Cured-in-Place Piping, a method where a liner is placed inside the pipe and then cured in place to reinforce the walls from possible root damage and other structural issues that lead to sewage leaks from the pipe.
“You don’t have to dig up everything and rip out old pipes and create those sorts of issues that can have a variety of impacts on a community,” said Sally Spencer, the water commission’s U.S. Secretary.
A ‘Band-Aid’ repair
There are still critics of the project, saying it doesn’t do enough to address long lasting issues. Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino calls it a Band-Aid.
“It will protect us,” he said. “But it’ll be a certain amount of time. It’s not like having a line the proper size and capacity. When you have a small line like this, and you have close to half-a-million people, then the lines are gonna be pressurized. That’s what causes the problems.”
Garino argues that the pipeline would need a 48- to 60-inch diameter to move without pressure. However Kuczmanski, with the water commission, said that the pipeline is already gravity-fed and does not move with pressure as Garino claimed, though the needs of the pipeline could change if the population increases on either side of the border.
Garino has been a proponent for reconstructing the pipeline since talks about a reconstruction project began in the early 2000s.
“Studies have been done, and it’s just not feasible,” Kuczmanski said, referring to the 2005 study done by Brown and Caldwell. “It would be a lot of money to have that IOI completely removed out of the wash, that’s just not going to happen. So the next best thing is to use the CIPP technology. And it’s like a new pipe for the next 50 years.”
The pipeline goes under the Nogales wash and is transported to the sewage plant in Rio Rico where it is treated. The effluent is then put back into the Santa Cruz River that travels north toward Tucson, where it dries up.
Near Rio Rico and Tubac, though, the water brings life to the desert where endangered Gila topminnow prosper and aquatic invertebrates thrive, according to the Sonoran Institute, a non-profit organization that aims to protect the region’s natural resources.
It’s a “beautiful, lush riparian corridor,” said Luke Cole, a spokesperson for the Sonoran Institute, which has released annual reports on the condition of the Santa Cruz River since 2008.
Problems with antiquated sewer systems on both sides of the international border in Nogales had caused health threats for residents due to fecal coliform bacteria, according to Arizona Daily Star archives. In 2011, the report stated that the fish population was growing back due to a $59 million cleanup of the sewage plant.
A sewage breach put out millions of gallons of raw sewage in 2017 into the Santa Cruz River and created serious concern for the river’s health, as well as E. coli possibly making its way into the riverstream where people visited.
Two years later a Sonoran Institute report found that high levels that do not meet Arizona’s E. coli standard continue to be seen in the river, with 73% of exceedances occurring during the rainy season, suggesting that rain washes fecal material into the river.
“By maintaining an IOI that’s bringing water into the U.S., it creates the Santa Cruz River in Nogales as we know it, and it’s a large beautiful river corridor that we think warrants protection for the benefit of the people who live here and the fish and the bugs and wildlife,” Cole said.
