Tour of the Rio Alamar/Tijuana River Watershed
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
San Diego & Imperial Beach, California, United States
January 16, 2002
click on images for larger view
Our tour began with a stop near the Rio Alamar, which feeds into the Tijuana River from the east. Run-off from the town of Tecate, about 25 miles inland, contributes to these flows. (they are in the process of developing an industrial pretreatment program)

At the beginning of the tour, a map showing the watershed was displayed to the participants. Approximately 2/3rds of the watershed is in Mexico, and its final discharge into the ocean is near Imperial Beach, in the United States.

 inspecting a map of the watershed at the start of the tour
agricultural lands near proposed site of sewage treatment facilities View of the Rio Alamar, eastern Tijuana. It is still largely agricultural and undeveloped. 

We estimated this is near the proposed location of the ponding facility that will provide secondary level treatment for the International Wastewater Facility, over 10 miles away in the United States. (for more see the IWTP website)
Typical development on the steep slopes of Tijuana: cinder blocks, sparse landscaping. typical hillside construction in Tijuana, steep slopes, no landscaping
View of the Ecoparque reclamation & treatment facilities and park using irrigated water View of the Ecoparque facilities, nearby housing, vegetation is irrigated w/reclaimed water.

Note houses above, taking advantage of view of downtown (see below) and park greenery.
The view from above the Ecoparque facility. The Tijuana River runs through the concrete channel in the center; downtown Tijuana is visible on the other side. 

The river flows westward (towards the right in this view) into San Diego.

 view from above the Ecoparque facility.
Tour participants walking on trail around the perimeter of Ecoparque
 Tour participants walking around the perimeter of the facility. 

Notice new construction in background, sparse landscaping in adjacent neighborhood.
Tour participants near one of the settling towers. 

Because of water scarcity and costs, Tijuana's residents use approx. 25% as much water (180 liters/day) as their neighbors in San Diego (180 GALLONS/day). One impact: very few private or public gardens.

 Tour participants near one of the settling towers.
open-air settling basins at the IWTP After touring EcoParque, participants visited the International Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWTP) in San Diego, a few hundred feet from the border fence. This is their open-air settling basins. 

The IWTP is adjacent to the Tijuana River (in the background of this photo) and treats an average of 25 MGD of Tijuana's sewage that is piped over from their main pumping facility. Sewage not collected in the system ends up in the river itself...
and eventually winds up in the Tijuana River Estuary. This is where our tour concluded. 

The Visitor's Center at the National Estuarine Research Reserve is seen alongside this channel. The ocean is on the far side of the buildings seen to the left.

 Visitor's Center at the National Estuarine Research Reserve
All information and images on this website ©  Lori Saldaña, 2002
Created: April 2002. For more information contact Lori Saldaña