Emergency Declared As Mexican Sewage Pours Into U.S. Creek

On Wednesday, Governor Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency following the rupture of a sewage conveyance pipeline near Nogales, Arizona and sent a letter of request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking for assistance in flood and damage mitigation efforts.

The emergency declaration follows similar declarations from Santa Cruz County and the City of Nogales and makes available additional state resources for the response effort.

Santa Cruz County has received the test results from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Initial ADEQ samples found levels of E. coli bacteria that exceeded recommended levels, both below and above the partial breach. Further sampling is being conducted with results still pending.

In response to the initial test results, Santa Cruz County Health Services and the Arizona Department of Health Services is advising the public to stay out of the Nogales Wash and the Santa Cruz River. Even in the absence of untreated wastewater, stormflows are typically high in pollutants that can be harmful to human health such as bacteria and pathogens. Water near and downstream of the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI) partial breach is of particular concern and should be avoided.

Santa Cruz County Health Services is also recommending to those who own a private well within 100 ft. of the waterway to have their well tested for contamination.

Earlier in the week, flooding caused by monsoon storms resulted in a breach in the International Outfall Interceptor, a pipeline that carries sewage from Sonora, Mexico to a wastewater treatment plant 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The declaration directs $200,000 to the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs as well as additional assets outlined under the State of Arizona Emergency Response and Recovery Plan.

On July 25, 2017, during an inspection of the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI), the City of Nogales public works reported a partial breach of the IOI approximately 200 yards north of the intersection of Old Tucson Rd. and the Nogales Wash.

A dislodged section of cement that encases one of the manhole accesses to the IOI, partially sheared the pipe below the waterline causing discharge of untreated wastewater into the Nogales Wash.

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