AZMEX STINKING SPECIAL 1 OCT 2017
Note: of local interest mostly, or anyone else downwind.
thx
IBWC to fight judge's ruling that it partly owns IOI
By Paulina Pineda
Nogales International Sep 29, 2017
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/ibwc-to-fight-judge-s-ruling-that-it-partly-owns/article_e9960e50-a4ac-11e7-966c-5bc2b5b9382d.html
IBWC Citizens Forum
IBWC Assistant Attorney Rebecca Rizzuti addresses the roughly 60 attendees at the quarterly meeting of the Southeast Arizona Citizens Forum on Thursday, Sept. 21 in Tubac.
Photo by Paulina Pineda
A final resolution to a long-running legal battle between the International Boundary and Water Commission and the City of Nogales over the ownership of a binational sewer line could be prolonged after a lawyer with the federal agency indicated at a public meeting last week that the IBWC plans to appeal a magistrate judge's recommendation that it is a partial owner of the entire line.
"You might wonder why there's a lawyer giving this presentation," quipped Rebecca Rizzuti, assistant attorney with IBWC, her statement met by laughs from the roughly 60 people who attended last Thursday's Southeast Arizona Citizens Forum at the Tubac Community Center.
During the meeting, hosted by an advisory group working with the IBWC, Rizzuti gave a presentation on the history of the Nogales International Sanitation Project, which includes the International Wastewater Treatment Plant and the International Outfall Interceptor, the binational sewer line that carries millions of gallons of waste each day from Ambos Nogales to the treatment plant in Rio Rico, in addition to an update on the lawsuit.
The IBWC is being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality over Clean Water Act violations stemming from contaminants found in the treatment plant and IOI. The IBWC in turn sued the state and City of Nogales alleging that if the pipeline was leaking contaminants into the Nogales Wash, it was the city's responsibility to remedy the problem.
Rizzuti said the problem stems from surcharge that spills out of the manholes in the IOI and occurs when there is a blockage in the system or an abundance of stormwater, as often occurs during the summer monsoon season.
"So stormwater and wastewater will come out of those manholes on occasion and the lawsuit deals with who's responsible for or who's liable for the surcharges that occur along this line," she said. "The state and the city contend it's USIBWC. USIBWC contends the IOI is a city line."
In April, U.S. Magistrate Judge D. Thomas Ferraro issued a "report and recommendation," which noted that the IBWC is at least a partial owner or operator of the IOI and the agency is aware that wastewater is continuously discharged from the pipeline into the wash in violation of Arizona state statute. The judge ruled that IBWC could not transfer responsibility for the lawsuit to the city, and that since the contaminants weren't coming from the city's system, the problem was out of the government entity's control.
The IBWC filed an objection and on Sept. 20, a district judge adopted Ferraro's recommendation that because the IBWC admits partial ownership, it was liable for the surcharge, Rizzuti said.
Despite the judge's order, she said, the agency's position hasn't changed.
"We disagree," she said, adding that the IBWC will request a remedy. "(A)nd when there is a final order issued, if the IOI is found still to be our responsibility, we are discussing with the Department of Justice an appeal of that finding."
City 'prevails'
Maintenance of the sewer line is the shared responsibility of the City of Nogales and the IBWC as the result of an arrangement dating to 1953. The sanitation project originally consisted of a 7,200-foot sewer line in Mexico, an 8,146-foot pipeline in the United States and a treatment plant about 1.5 miles north of the border.
In 1965, the city requested that IBWC negotiate an agreement with Mexico to enlarge the capacity of the treatment plant, and also asked that the plant be relocated to its present site near the Rio Rico Industrial Park. In 1996, the IBWC took over operation of the treatment plant.
During her presentation, Rizzuti said the city claims the IBWC owns about 78 percent of the IOI, while the IBWC contends that the city owns 100 percent of the line.
Regardless of who owns it, Rizzuti added, the city signed a contract agreeing to operate and maintain the line and to absolve Mexico of any costs associated with its operation and maintenance.
She also argued that Minute 227 of the treaty, which negotiated the extension of the line and relocation of the plant, acknowledges that the relocation was necessary for domestic, and not international, purposes and therefore Mexico and the IBWC share no responsibility for maintaining and operating it.
"We don't manage the IOI, we don't allow connections to it, we don't have anything to do with the domestic operation of the IOI," she said, adding later: "We don't make money off the operation of the IOI. We are not a wastewater treatment system biller."
Speaking by phone Thursday morning, City Attorney Jose Luis Machado said the district judge's ruling was "a step in the right direction for the city."
"We prevailed against IBWC and the litigation between ADEQ and IBWC continues regarding the contaminants coming from Mexico," he said, adding: "It doesn't resolve all the issue because IBWC disagrees with the judge in that position, but the only opinion that matters here is the judge's opinion and he's ruled in favor of the City of Nogales. Until that's appealed and until that's overturned, that is the law of this case – IBWC has an ownership interest in the IOI."
Machado called IBWC's position regarding the ownership of the line "ludicrous," noting that though IBWC tried to argue that it was a partial owner of the original trunkline but not the extension, the judge ruled that the pipeline was one continuous line.
"IBWC's position is that they don't have any authority on the sewer line. If you don't have any authority, then what have you been doing down here the last 50 years?" he asked. "They take responsibility when they want it and they absolve themselves of every responsibility when they want to. Their whole existence is to address sanitation and flood problems of international character and yet they say they can't."
He said city staff is preparing its own presentation regarding the ownership of the IOI and Nogales Wash that will be presented during the October city council meeting.
end
Oomapas repairs water line
Details Posted on Saturday September 30, 2017, Written by Editorial Staff / El Diario
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=97948
Nogales
Directed by Mauro Corrales Bujanda, staff of the Municipal Operator for Drinking Water, Sewer and Sanitation (Oomapas) worked intensely on the immediate repair of a four-inch diameter water line in the Mediterranean Fraccionamiento. (neighborhood)
According to the new policy applied by the Municipal President in the area of citizen care, the drinking water leakage that resulted from the rupture of the four-inch diameter pipe was reported in the Circuito Tierra Street of that colony was solved .
He emphasized that as well as this fault that was attended to promptly, all other problems that are detected or reported, are solved quickly and efficiently, while continuing to provide regular services, such as water delivery by pipes.
He announced that there are other tasks that the various crews do to keep the water distribution networks in good condition, as well as the collection system of black water. (sewage)
According to Mauro Corrales, the instructions of the Municipal President are precise and conclusive, which is why the agency's operational area is working hard to meet all the needs of citizens, as well as the maintenance of water infrastructure.
END
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