By Emily Bregel Special to the Arizona Daily Star GUAYMAS, SONORA — As sewage spills continue to plague the port city of Guaymas and its tourist sector of San Carlos, local officials are touting new projects to help resolve the decades-old problem.Sierra Vista resident Michael Palm said the worsening sewage situation led his family to cancel their regular trip to San Carlos this summer and instead head to San Diego.
In a June 10 press conference, Córdova, who took office in September, acknowledged the frustration of residents who have dealt with a failing sewer system, and unfulfilled promises for reform, for decades. The recently announced projects are a modest start, said Jaqueline García Hernández, a biochemical engineer who runs the Environmental Sciences Lab at CIAD in Guaymas, which is part of a network of federally supported laboratories.García Hernández is leading a team of researchers in an experiment that aims to improve the city’s overwhelmed oxidation lagoon, known as La Salada.
In December the Star published a four-month investigation exploring the root causes of, and realistic solutions to, the sewage crisis in Guaymas and San Carlos. A collaboration with KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk, the project was funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.Retirees Dave and Sue Barlow of Utah spend about half the year in San Carlos, where they own a seaside home on San Francisco Beach.
But CEA workers are facing an uphill battle. Former CEA regional director Ivan Cruz said last fall that Guaymas’ sewer system has the “perfect storm” of challenges. That includes hilly topography that requires enormous amounts of energy to pump sewage, rocky soil that can easily damage poorly installed pipes, and inadequate resources, exacerbated by frustrated residents who don’t pay their water bills.
On Friday, a spokesman said both Gov. Durazo’s office, and the state-level office of the Comisión Estatal del Agua, declined to comment. The Mexican government has committed $5 billion pesos — about $240 million dollars — to port modernization projects in Sonora, including upgrading the sewage system in Guaymas. Among the projects: Construction of an additional oxidation lagoon in North Guaymas and eventually, a wastewater treatment plant.
Within hours, CEA workers halted the leak after a public outcry and a series of social media posts on the environmental hazard. CEA later reported the sewage flow was caused by a clamp, in a state of deterioration, becoming detached from a pressurized sewage line.