The new funds were included in the 2024 fiscal year appropriations package, signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday, and will help make repairs to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is treating contaminated wastewater from the Tijuana River.

“The package announced today secures urgently needed federal funding—over $100 million more than last year—to help repair the federal South Bay plant and fix the sewage crisis that San Diego communities have dealt with for far too long,” Gov. Newsom said in a March 21 press release announcing the federal dollars.

The plant also received a $350 million commitment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in September 2023 to upgrade the plant, increasing its treatment capacity, according to a press release at the time by Mr. Newsom.

It additionally received $300 million in 2020 for the same reason, but more upgrades were again needed as “flows and maintenance costs” have increased since the last round of funding, according to officials.

The river that runs through Mexico and the United States has been contaminated due to untreated wastewater from Tijuana since the early 1900s, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission of United States and Mexico, which manages boundary and water issues between the two countries.

The U.S. Consulate General Tijuana is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks, and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate. U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice.

According to the NY Post, this all started with gang wars at a prison:

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana warned the public and government employees to avoid the area and seek shelter as violence and unrest erupted. The U.S. Consulate tweeted that vehicles are being set ablaze, roadblocks are being set up, and there is heavy police activity occurring in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate.

At this time, all U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place.

The violence began on Thursday in a Ciudad Juarez prison when the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly led by infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and Los Mexicles began feuding, leading to a riot that left two dead and 16 injured, according to the Times of San Diego. The violence then spread out of the prison and into the city streets of Juarez, where gang members killed an additional nine people, most of them civilians.

This does not appear to be random, uncoordinated violence.

Narco attack on the U.S. border. The cartels carried out simultaneous attacks in Tijuana, Mexicali, and Tecate. https://t.co/q3YVj9Dqn4

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 13, 2022

Could this be more than a spontaneous war between cartels? Is there something else happening behind the scenes that could cause this eruption of violence to spread into the United States?