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 pos sible, 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 collector before, including a major failure in 2017. Rehabilitation of the pipe is among a series of wastewater infrastructure set to be upgraded and fixed under an initial agreement signed by the U.S. and Mexico in July. In October, the director of Tijuana’s public service commission said the rehabilitation project for the Insurgentes Collector was set to go out to bid, according to Mexican news reports. Construction on five other facilities in Tijuana, including pump stations and collector systems, are set to begin this year under the terms of the agreement between the two countries. The agreement calls for another five projects to begin in 2027. On the U.S. side, Aguirre has called for the county to solve a sewage “hot spot” at Saturn Boulevard, where sewage in the river cascades and causes toxins to become aerosolized. “The Trump administration has failed the people of San Diego by allowing this crisis to stagnate,” Aguirre said. “We need immediate, emergency funding to fix the Saturn Blvd infrastructure in order to provide some relief to our families now.” ...read more read less