The Bajagua Project is a $180,000,000 solution to help meet the wastewater treatment needs of
the City of Tijuana through 2023. It will have capacity to treat 59 MGD; 25 MGD as primary
effluent pumped back into Mexico from an existing treatment plant operated by the United States
Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, and 34 MGD as raw sewage
intercepted from the Tijuana sewer collection system. The treated wastewater will be returned to
the United States, must meet secondary discharge standards, and will be discharged through the
existing South Bay Ocean Outfall. A future goal of the Bajagua Project is reuse of the effluent in
Mexico.
The Bajagua Project is unique in many respects including:
project facilities are located both in Mexico and the United States (U.S.) and the
sewage crosses the international border;
authorization of the Project required two acts of the U.S. Congress;
construction and operating costs will be reimbursed from U.S. government
appropriations;
public-private partnership approach to designing, building, and operating the
Bajagua Project is a "first" in addressing a bi-national pollution program; although the wastewater treatment plant is located in Mexico, the project will meet both
U.S. and Mexican pollution control standards; and,
development of the Project involves an extraordinary level of coordination to obtain
approvals and permits from federal, state, and local agencies on both sides of the U.S. -
Mexico border.
Bajagua LLC has assembled a multi-disciplinary team with legal, technical, and financial
expertise from both sides the border to address the complex and multi-faceted issues that must be
resolved in implementing this project. Having received the approval and concurrence from U.S.
and Mexican authorities, Bajagua LLC is proceeding with the procurement of a design-build-operate (DBO) contractor
and is obtaining the permits and approvals required for construction.