At the Coronado City Council meeting on August 19, the Council began with the approval of a small administrative correction to the fiscal year 2025-26 Building Permit User Fees for the City, which was previously approved in April.
The Council also unanimously approved the adoption of the City’s Sewer System Management Plan (SSMP). The document details updates to the management, operation, and maintenance of the City’s sewer system, which includes 47 miles of sewer pipelines and 17 pump/lift stations.
The report noted that the phased implementation of the State Water Board’s 2022 Waste Discharge Requirements was updated over the past few years, including the submission of annual reports, a three-year internal SSMP audit (completed this past February), and the submitted updates outlined in the SSMP.
City staff then provided an update on the status of the SR-75 median project for the area between Pomona Avenue and Avenida De Las Arenas. This iteration of the project follows an initial phase that encompassed enhanced landscaping and improved irrigation to the medians from RH Dana Place to the stoplight at Pomona Avenue.
The baseline of work will feature complementary landscaping (developed from input from the City, Caltrans, and Shores residents) and in-kind irrigation updates to this area of the median, in addition to upgrades to the street lights’ power system and light fixtures.
Two additive projects were previously approved for consideration, which include extending the scope of the base project to include the median from Pomona Avenue through to Rendova Road, rather than stopping at Avenida De Las Arenas. The second addition would also widen the portion of the median near the Community Center and pool through a currently unused paved section there.
Additionally, Caltrans has approved the removal of the northern crosswalk at Avenida De Las Arenas as part of this project due to pedestrian safety concerns with the design and placement of the crosswalk, where the line of sight of pedestrians can be obscured for drivers turning left at that intersection from the Shores.
The southern crosswalk would remain as the sole pathway for pedestrians to cross SR-75 at that intersection.
All council members were in favor of moving forward with the project, approving the removal of the crosswalk and directing staff to put each element of the project (the base project and the two additives) out for bid. Staff anticipate bringing the project back before the Council later this year for the final selection of which elements to approve and allocate funds for the project, with the goal for construction on the medians to begin by April of 2026. Construction is currently estimated to take six to eight months and will require an element of traffic control and lane closures during that period.
Friend and various council members then provided a quarterly update on the cross-border sewage issue. Friend began by noting that $78 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) is currently included in the budget being proposed by the House of Representatives for the 2026 fiscal year for operations, maintenance, and construction at the IBWC wastewater treatment plant. An additional $67.3 million is also included in that proposal for IBWC salaries and expenses. The City will continue to advocate for funds to address this issue at the national level.
Councilmember Mark Fleming represents Coronado on the Tijuana River Working Group and mentioned that the current average flow through the Tijuana Estuary has been around 5 million gallons per day, with an average of almost 25 million gallons per day flowing across the border to the IBWC plant (the current treatment capacity of which is 25 million gallons per day).
The plant’s capacity is expected to be expanded by the end of the month to treat 35 million gallons per day, while the IBWC plant is undergoing larger repairs and updates to eventually handle the treatment of 50 million gallons per day (plus temporary surge flows of up to 75 million gallons per day). The current timeline goal is to have the full expansion comple by the end of 2027.
In Tijuana, the recently updated San Antonio de los Buenos Treatment Plant (SAB) now has a capacity to treat 18 million gallons per day, but is currently seeing average flows of around 45 million gallons per day.
Mayor John Duncan discussed recent developments between the United States and Mexico regarding the cross-border sewage infrastructure. As part of the Tijuana River Sewage Memorandum of Understanding, Mexico will be allocating funds to complete a series of infrastructure projects (Minute 328 projects) designed to help control the sewage flows in Tijuana. Funds from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Border Water Infrastructure Program Fund will also help with similar projects, such as the construction of collection pipes.
Duncan also noted that as part of the agreements, Mexico will be diverting an additional 10 million gallons of flow per day from entering the Tijuana River by sending it to the Rodríguez Dam in Mexico to further help control the flow level of untreated sewage. Both countries have also agreed to develop a Tijuana Water Infrastructure Master Plan for the purpose of future wastewater treatment infrastructure planning in conjunction with estimated population growth. Mexico and the United States will also be entering a new minute agreement at the end of this year, more details of which can be viewed within the Council’s agenda packet for the meeting at https://ca-coronado.civicplus.com/449/Agendas-Minutes.
Councilmember Carrie Downey then explained how the National League of Cities is able to help lobby on behalf of cities like Coronado to resolve issues such as the cross-border sewage crisis and provide national visibility on the issue to representatives across the country. Coronado continues to update the resolution that passed a few years ago to include the issue as one of national interest to resolve, to stay consistent with the City’s messaging and goals amidst changes to the situation. One such update came last year with the addition of language to address ongoing maintenance to the IBWC treatment plant to avoid falling back into the same situation of disrepair in the future.
As a part of this update, Councilmember Amy Steward also discussed a possible aid for removing pollutants from the water through a technology called “nanobubbles.” (A full explanation of nanobubbles and Steward and Councilmember Kelly Purvis’ visit to Lake Elsinore, where nanobubbles have helped restore the lake’s water conditions, can be seen in our discussion with the councilmembers at https://www.coronadonewsca.com/news/coronado_city_news/nanobubbles-exploring-potential-avenues-to-address-water-pollution/article_9bfd5d54-56d5-4776-9cf9-69363d0dfc27.html.)
Steward, Duncan, and both the mayor and the city manager of Imperial Beach have since met with Congressman Scott Peters regarding the technology and a possible path forward to explore its use in the area. She mentioned that Peters was supportive of the concept and felt it could be pursued without the need for an emergency declaration. Steward was also recently notified that the Navy is working with the IBWC, which has contracted a 90-day pilot program to test nanobubbles at a site on Saturn Boulevard. She is advocating for this pilot program to be pursued in the best way possible with an organization that has a proven track record for work on large-scale aquatic projects.
In the discussion, Duncan brought up the possibility of potentially introducing nanobubbles on both sides of the border, which Steward agreed with and added that deploying that technology can help provide more cost-effective mitigation measures for restoring and keeping the water clean. The Council then accepted the quarterly report.
The final item of the meeting addressed a Policy No. 2 request brought forth by Steward. Following the recent tsunami warning, she felt there could be a benefit to having a future Council discussion around the City’s public emergency notification system to ensure the community has a reliable alert and evacuation system.
Downey mentioned that she would see the most benefit in discussing and planning for the circumstances that would warrant an evacuation and how those notifications would go out, but did not want to set an expectation for a near-future report to include a fully detailed evacuation plan.
Purvis added that she would be supportive of looking specifically at emergency communication for the community, given that not everyone gets information in the same way, from the same devices, etc., and that timeliness is critical to successful evacuations should that need ever arise.
Fleming and Duncan also agreed that this was a topic worth exploring further at a future meeting to review and discuss those policies. A motion was unanimously passed to approve the Policy No. 2 request. Friend added that while the City takes emergency preparation very seriously, having a future agenda item can provide a good opportunity to engage the community on this topic, as well.
The next City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 2, at 4 p.m. at City Hall. For more information on upcoming meetings, please visit the City’s website at https://ca-coronado.civicplus.com/449/Agendas-Minutes.
VOL. 115, NO. 34 – Aug. 20, 2025