BBK Obtains $156 Million in Funding for Water Quality Projects
Funding Will Rebuild Treatment Plant on Internal Border in San Diego
Washington, D.C. – Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Government Affairs team including Andre Monette, Lowry Crook, Ana Schwab, Christopher Keosian and Legislative Coordinator Alex Dunn helped secure $156 million in funding for water quality projects on the internal border in San Diego. The projects involve doubling the capacity of an existing wastewater treatment that accepts sewage from Mexico and provides treatment to prevent raw sewage and other pollutants from damaging coastal resources in the United States.
For the past several years, the treatment plant and another plant, south of San Diego and across the border in Mexico have been overwhelmed causing the discharge of millions of gallons of polluted water into the Pacific Ocean every day. The pollution has closed beaches as far as 20 miles from the border and caused a public health threat in the local community. It has also impacted the ability of the Navy SEALs to train at a new facility that was recently constructed at a cost of $1 billion.
BBK has been involved with the project since 2018 and helped coordinate an amendment to the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement that allocated $300 million to address and implement a resolution. Mexico subsequently committed to rebuilding its plant at a cost of $144 million. When it became apparent that the initial $300 million would not be enough funding for the project, BBK assisted in coordinating the most recent efforts that resulted in $156 million in budget funding for FY 24.
The federal government is now moving forward with the projects and has accepted bids for design and construction. In total, BBK helped acquire approximately $630 million for these initiatives.
For more media inquiries, please contact Whitney Murray at whitney.murray@bbklaw.com.
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