[smcin]

Noone said "SD is broke", can we have a good-faith discussion please?

It's not a question of the Fed "helping", it is a federal issue, just as much as TX, FL, AZ etc. spending federal money on any other transborder matter. The sewage is caused by Mexico (not SD) and affects as far up as LA, and it's a federal and foreign-policy issue as much as a local issue for the SoCal counties.

I don't know much about SoCal water treatment, here's a useful explanation [0] + infographic [1] from EPA.

As to arguing that a couple of hundred million in federal funding to do something useful that improves both SD and TJ (quality-of-life, tourism, watersports, etc.) is unthinkable, compare to the waste in the ICE budget for FY 2025: $10.5 billion, several billions of which is being spent on privatized prisons for unnecessarily holding people up to 18 mths (when Congress could simply e.g. expand H-2A/B visas for the agricultural/manufacturing/services workers which the US is dependent on). TJ is essentially the outsource manufacturing hub on the US's doorstep, and will be increasingly so when some manufacturing moves back to N America (e.g. from China), we might as well constructively engage with reality. Really this decision should be non-partisan and a no-brainer.

[0]: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-water-infrastructure/usmca-t...

[1]: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/images/2021-08/concerns-map...

[kortilla]

But without annexing TJ, you can’t force that money to be spent correctly or for anti-pollution laws to be enforced. Mexico has more than enough money to solve this issue, the problem is that they don’t want to.

[smcin]

(Yes, and the US is delinquent on clearing landmines in Cambodia which the US supplied half a century ago; Bourdain had some very strong words on the matter. The US has more than enough money to solve this issue, the problem is that they don’t want to. Tu quoque. Also, the northeastern US sends air pollution into Canada, and there's a transborder program on that, with Canada.)

Anyway, the US has fairly successfully managed to conduct foreign assistance on water purification and sanitation for decades (historically, through USAID's Global Water Strategy and other programs, for developing countries, and specific ad-hoc legislation for Mexico) without sending in Chuck Norris to oversee it, or militarily annexing the region involved. In the context of NAFTA+USMCA, SD-TJ is a 21st-century mega-region that straddles national borders (pop 5.46m (2020), 72nd largest in the world and 11th largest in North America), as does the Tijuana water basin. Officially it becomes a mega-city when it hits 10m, projected for the 2030s, or only 1/2 presidencies from now.

Given USAID is currently being dissolved and folded back into the State Dept, the onus is now on the current admin to figure out their approach with Mexico/BCN/TJ to a solution and implement it. Transborder cooperation is possible. Yes there are some obvious structural challenges in dealing with Mexico and implementing assistance.

SoCal water policy is already under a major spotlight in the context of the 2025 LA fires and private agribusiness ownership of water rights in adjacent watersheds; that's a two-century-old story.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-10-957