CALEXICO — Work has slowly resumed on parts of the New River Improvement Project after a six-week shutdown from storm damage and a raw sewage spill originating from Mexicali, and now the city of Calexico is hoping a $12.5 million state Budget Act allocation earmarked for the New River Parkway will apply to the ailing improvement project.
The $47.9 million New River Improvement Project is already behind schedule, and the storm damage that was initially assessed at $1.5 million in the days after the Jan. 22 deluge that dropped 1.15 inches on the Mexicali Valley has grown to between $2 million and $3 million, Calexico City Manager Esperanza Colio Warren said on Wednesday, March 13.
“We don’t know the amount yet. We’ll find out as they continue working with the … damages,” Colio Warren said. She indicated that those damages could be even higher as the city goes back and forth with its insurance carrier.
“And while we also submitted an emergency declaration to the state for the damages to the New River and the wastewater treatment plant, there will be a time in which we cannot have the funding to pay for the cleanup of those damages,” Colio Warren explained to the City Council.
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The city has already used up the contingency funding on the New River Improvement Project because of the unforeseen costs tied to the storm damages, Colio Warren said, so the project was in need of — “funding that is available quicker. And so we were able to find this funding that is available for the New River Parkway. But related activities as well,” the city manager said.
Enter Assembly member Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, who allocated the $12.5 million from the state Department of Parks and Recreation through the Budget Act of 2022-2023 for the parkway project. The funding could not have come at a more critical juncture, and all that was needed to retrieve the funding was the passage of a resolution of its acceptance. The council would go on to unanimously approve the resolution during a special meeting on Wednesday night.
The related activities Colio Warren referenced is the key phrase as the city banks on the loose definitions tied to the allocation, which makes allowances for work on related projects in the vicinity of the funded project, that is, the New River Parkway Project, which is a walking/biking path that runs beside the river, most notably behind Nosotros Park. Phase one of the project was started several years back; phases two and three remain.
Colio Warren explained to the council that state officials she has spoken with are well aware of the plan to use the funding from the parkway to put toward the improvement project, and she said they encouraged her to get the resolution passed quickly due to the state’s deficit crisis.
“The state is having a deficit and all the funding that has not been contracted will be pulled to absorb for the deficit at the state level,” Colio Warren said.
In this case, the cart is truly coming before the horse.
The city basically has the $12.5 million before it ever has its scope of work tied to the New River Improvement Project. Colio Warren said that is mainly because the damages are still being assessed and the water is still being pumped out. Also, phases two and three of the New River Parkway Project need to be refreshed; it’s been some years.
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The city manager said she is aiming for the first week of April to bring back the scope of work.
Meanwhile, contractors are still pumping water from those portions of the project the public can’t see some six weeks later. At the time of the Jan. 22 rainfall, construction crews were working on the most time-consuming portion of the project — digging the wells in preparation for submerging a 72-inch pipe to run from the border to the Second Street bridge, Colio Warren said.
The rainfall caused a river surge that emanated from the Mexicali side, overrunning all the barriers set up to hold back the water, filling areas dug out for pumps and other “dewatering” equipment, and then the area was declared a health and safety problem due to the rain also causing a raw sewage spill at one of Mexicali’s wastewater treatment plant’s down river.
The project was in the early stages when the storm came; the start was delayed more than four months by the presence of the protected burrowing owl, which has forced weekly meetings with a biologist.
The New River Improvement Project breaks down into three main components — a concrete-lined, automated trash screen at the border, a tertiary pumpback system that will bring some clean water back to the area that will also act as a water feature and the diversion structure, which is the encasement of the river to the Second Street bridge.
