CORONADO, Calif. — The Coronado Unified School District joined South Bay residents in a lawsuit against the operators of the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant, alleging they allowed raw sewage to be discharged into the waters of southern San Diego County.
Coronado Unified claims it has had “to expend substantial sums to combat the health issues faced by plaintiff’s students and faculty members” due to exposure to toxic pollutants, noxious fumes, odors, and contaminated water, NBC San Diego reports. Veolia, the company that has run the plant since 2011, is “negligent” and “reckless” for repeatedly exposing community members to harmful, cancer-causing chemicals, according to the 29-page complaint. The contaminants in the sewage allegedly include Hydrogen Sulfide, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, Benzidine, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls.
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The complaint, filed Monday in San Diego Superior Court, alleges Coronado Unified students and staff have subsequently been treated for “headaches, lightheadedness, dizzy spells, asthma, nausea, breathing conditions, stinging eyes, and other related symptoms.”
The district is seeking damages to cover medical treatment costs and to pay for medical monitoring.
Veolia: Contaminated Water Comes from Mexico
A representative for Veolia said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit would be better suited to go after the source of the problem instead of the company trying to solve it.
“The untreated sewage plaguing San Diego comes directly from Mexico through the Pacific Ocean and the Tijuana River, not the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said Adam Lisberg, Veolia’s Senior Vice President of External Communications. “The claims in this lawsuit are misplaced, and Veolia’s hardworking local employees do not deserve to be blamed for the Mexican government’s failures.”
According to an email from Lisberg, Veolia operates the plant on behalf of its owner, the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), the Coronado Times reports. It is the single largest facility protecting San Diego, treating up to 25 million gallons of Tijuana’s sewage each day. Lisberg says San Diego has been inundated with about 100 billion gallons of raw sewage, industrial waste, and urban runoff for the last five years as a result of Tijuana’s insufficient wastewater infrastructure.
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James Frantz, a lawyer from the firm representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, says Veolia shouldn’t have taken on the assignment if it couldn’t do it properly, noting the company has been paid tens of millions of dollars by the federal government.
“Mexico isn’t the only bad actor here. Veolia is another bad actor,” Frantz said. “This started in 2011. It’s 2025. How long does it take to figure it out? Get your engineers on board, redesign your equipment so its works correctly, and expand it as you need to.”
More than 500 plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit since it was first introduced in Nov. 2024. Frantz said each plaintiff will also file a separate lawsuit as each has an individual claim and their own set of damages they are seeking.
William Shinoff, another attorney with the firm, said he expects other South Bay school districts to join the lawsuit.
