Tijuana's sewage fouled California beaches for decades. Now unlikely allies have gotten the Trump administration to spend $300 million to address the environmental mess.
With the backing of an unusual mix of local Democrats, Republicans, Border Patrol agents and environmental groups, House Democrats leveraged their support for the trade bill — one of Trump’s highest priorities — to secure the administration’s rare backing for an environmental project.
“We used his ambition for a new trade agreement to get what we wanted,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez , who was one of the lawmakers who negotiated with administration officials. “And in the end, it benefits, of course, the entire country and all Americans. But I think if [Trump] had a choice, it wouldn’t have been in there.”A spokesman for Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, said the administration was open to the project from the beginning.
“We weren’t looking for a down payment,” he said. “We were looking for an amount that would get us what we need. I said, ‘Mr. President, we can fix this.’”In the months of haggling that followed, four Democratic lawmakers from the San Diego area — Reps. Mike Levin, Susan A. Davis, Scott Peters, and Juan Vargas — turned up the pressure on Blumenauer and other House trade-bill negotiators to make the border project among their top demands.
Seeking additional leverage, Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, urged the administration to consider the national security consequences. With the Navy building a new training complex close to Imperial Beach, SEALs would be operating near where sewage spills into the ocean. “Border Patrol and Surfrider don’t seem like they’d have anything in common,” Craig said, “but we’re all just great partners.”Democratic lawmakers said Border Patrol agents and the Navy were crucial to winning the administration’s support.
As a result, federal funding to lessen the sewage flows was the only significant environmental victory to emerge from the trade negotiations.
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