San Diego

Funds totaling $5.3 million originally allocated for a binational sewage plant on the Mexican border will be used for emergency catch basins to divert renegade flows of sewage from border area gulches into the City of San Diego municipal treatment system. The new use of the funds, which were approved in last year’s state budget, was authorized by the state Department of Finance. The money had been held up in anticipation of receiving matching funds from the federal government. Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) said in a written statement that he hopes the release of the state funds “will stir some serious movement in Washington.”