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A worker pulls a robotic camera from Manhole 93, behind a warehouse just north of Ruby Road, on Wednesday. Crews are currently inspecting and cleaning the International Outfall Interceptor sewer line in preparation for shoring it up with cured-in-place piping.
This section of the international sewer line just east of the Nogales Ranger Station became exposed as runoff in Potrero Creek eroded the creekbank. This week, crews were working to encase it in concrete.
Seen in the upper left quadrant of this photos, crews placed rocks known as "riprap" along the east bank of Potrero Creek near the Nogales Ranger Station to stabilize the bank and prevent further erosion.
At this point on Old Tucson Road, at the intersection with South River Road, a series of pumps is sucking untreated sewage from the Intrnational Outfall Interceptor and sending it through a bypass line to a treatment plant in Rico Rio. The rerouting is meant to allow crews to inspect, clean and install cured-in-place piping in an approximately 1.6-mile stretch of the International Outfall Interceptor.
This bypass line is carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
This bypass line is carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
Sections of unused pipeline sit next to a bypass line that's carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
Drainage from a private industrial property on the East Frontage Road in Rio Rico was eroding the area around Manhole 93 of the International Outfall Interceptor. So crews mitigated the problem with riprap held in place with grout.
IBWC civil engineer Crystal Cadillo talks on Wednesday about the ongoing project to shore up the international sewer line that runs from the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales to a treatment plant in Rio Rico.
A worker pulls a robotic camera from Manhole 93, behind a warehouse just north of Ruby Road, on Wednesday. Crews are currently inspecting and cleaning the International Outfall Interceptor sewer line in preparation for shoring it up with cured-in-place piping.
This section of the international sewer line just east of the Nogales Ranger Station became exposed as runoff in Potrero Creek eroded the creekbank. This week, crews were working to encase it in concrete.
This bypass line is carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
Sections of unused pipeline sit next to a bypass line that's carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
Drainage from a private industrial property on the East Frontage Road in Rio Rico was eroding the area around Manhole 93 of the International Outfall Interceptor. So crews mitigated the problem with riprap held in place with grout.
IBWC civil engineer Crystal Cadillo talks on Wednesday about the ongoing project to shore up the international sewer line that runs from the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales to a treatment plant in Rio Rico.
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Crews have begun cleaning and inspecting a segment of international sewer line north of Nogales city limits in preparation for shoring up the decaying pipe with a cured-in-place interior layer.
The work is part of a $13.8-million project that kicked off in January to address the chronically leaky line known as the International Outfall Interceptor. The 9.9-mile-long IOI carries approximately 12 million gallons of wastewater each day from the U.S.-Mexico border in downtown Nogales to a treatment plant in Rio Rico.
In order to begin the process of inserting a resin-coated felt liner into the northernmost section of the pipeline and curing it in place with hot water, crews have spent the past several months installing a bypass line that runs from the junction of Old Tucson Road and South River Road to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant near Produce Row in Rio Rico. The bypass extends 10,700 linear feet using more than 20,000 feet of piping, according to Crystal Cadillo, a civil engineer with the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
“It gives them their time to go ahead and start cleaning and inspecting the line, and lining it as they go downstream,” Cadillo said of the bypass during a field visit on Wednesday.
Eight pumps are positioned at the “suction point” along Old Tucson Road, though some are on backup status. “They have enough redundancy in the event of an abrupt change,” Cadillo said, adding that the pumps are monitored 24/7.
At this point on Old Tucson Road, at the intersection with South River Road, a series of pumps is sucking untreated sewage from the Intrnational Outfall Interceptor and sending it through a bypass line to a treatment plant in Rico Rio. The rerouting is meant to allow crews to inspect, clean and install cured-in-place piping in an approximately 1.6-mile stretch of the International Outfall Interceptor.
The rehabilitation of the IOI has been divided into five stages, and the current contract, awarded to Missouri-based SAK Construction, is for the first three stages of work along a total of 5.3 miles of sewer line. This portion of the project is slated to be completed by Oct. 29, 2023. The contract for the final two phases is expected to be awarded by the end of September, with a final completion date in October 2024.
Phase 1, now underway, covers 1.6 miles of pipeline and 17 manholes nearest to the treatment plant. This section was prioritized due to its state of degradation, said Maria-Elena Giner, U.S. commissioner for the IBWC, during a groundbreaking ceremony in late January.
Here, the line follows the same general path as the Potrero Creek, sometimes coinciding with or crossing the north-flowing waterway. In late July 2017, the IOI ruptured at Manhole 89, just east of the Nogales Ranger Station, sending more than 600,000 gallons per day of raw sewage into the creek.
In addition to installing the bypass line, crews have installed stabilizing rock known as “riprap” on the creekbank in an effort to stem erosion. Near Manhole 86, just south of the 2017 breakage, erosion left a segment of the pipeline exposed in the waterway. This week, crews were working to encase the exposed pipe in concrete to protect it from waterborne debris.
They’ve also put riprap, held in place with grout, around a draining pipe from a warehouse property just north of Ruby Road, where runoff was eroding the earth around Manhole 93.
Seen in the upper left quadrant of this photos, crews placed rocks known as "riprap" along the east bank of Potrero Creek near the Nogales Ranger Station to stabilize the bank and prevent further erosion.
The erosion mitigation work comes “just in time before we have any monsoon season,” Cadillo said.
Next, after several weeks of inspection and cleaning, the Phase 1 length of sewer line will be fitted with cured-in-place piping.
“It’s a liner that gets inserted into the pipe, gets inflated with hot water, and gets cured for a certain amount of time,” Cadillo explained. “And it becomes a new pipe within the existing pipe.”
She said the new layer ranges in thickness from a quarter-inch to just less than an inch, meaning that it can occupy almost two inches of a pipeline that varies in diameter from 24 to 42 inches.
“It does slightly minimize the diameter,” Cadillo said, adding that because the IOI is in such bad condition, engineers expect the smoother-though-narrower passageway to be more conducive to wastewater flow.
“We actually believe it will provide more capacity because in the current state that it is, where there’s infiltration, there’s problems of things going through the pipe,” she said.
Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino has been skeptical of the cured-in-place piping, calling it a “Band-Aid solution.” Asked Wednesday about the life expectancy of the new liner, Cadillo said it’s 50 years, “about the same” as traditional pipeline.
While work on the IOI appears to so far be going smoothly, the process of getting it going was rocky, to say the least. It took a settlement in an eight-year-long legal battle before nearly $38.8 million – most of it federal funds – was earmarked for upgrades and protective measures.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality sued the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) in 2012, alleging Clean Water Act violations resulting from the leak-prone sewer line. After a settlement was reached in 2020, SAK Construction was awarded the contract for the first three phases in mid-2021, and ground was broken in late January 2022.
Initially, the SAK team planned to begin Phase 2 – the first 2.1 miles of the IOI, from the U.S.-Mexico border north through downtown and central Nogales – this fall. But now, that work won’t begin until after the new year, out of concern for downtown businesses and the holiday shopping season.
“Its going to get uncomfortable,” said Isela Canava, an engineer with the USIBWC. “They’re going to have to close off some streets, and so there will be a lot of detours – that’s still being coordinated with the city and the contractor. But it’s not going to be fun.”
This bypass line is carrying sewage north to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico while crews work to rehabilitate the northernmost section of the line known as the International Outfall Interceptor.
With the downtown work postponed until the start of 2023, crews will instead start Phase 3 – a 2.1-mile stretch of pipeline through the northern half of Nogales – in the fall.
Maintenance of the pipeline is the shared responsibility of the City of Nogales and the USIBWC as the result of a deal struck back in 1953. In recent years, the city has balked at its 23-percent share, saying Nogales contributes only about 8 percent of the sewage treated in Rio Rico, with the rest coming from Nogales, Sonora. And it has continued to fight the USIBWC in court over the issue.
Mayor Garino’s skepticism of the cured-in-place piping solution has been yet another manifestation of the the continuing local-federal friction over the IOI.
City Councilman Saulo Bonilla took part in Wednesday’s site visit with the USIBWC engineers, asking questions and taking photos that he said would be part of a report to the mayor.
“I’m very impressed with the overall project,” he told the NI afterward. “I’m glad that they’ve been working with the city, as far as doing (the downtown phase) after the beginning of the new year. But I’m very impressed. I’m very impressed with what they’re doing and I’m going back to the mayor with a report and letting him know.”
Phases 4 and 5 of the rehab plan – the phases still in the contract solicitation stage – involve approximately 3.4 miles of pipeline and 34 manholes between West Produce Way in Nogales and the intersection of Old Tucson and South River roads.
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