Mexican officials notified the U.S. portion of the International Boundary and Water Commission Thursday that final repairs to a broken collector pipe just south of the border were completed Wednesday night around 10 p.m.

Initial damage was thought to take place a few days before Christmas but did not become publicly known until Jan. 18., during which time an estimated 31 million gallons of sewage was spilled into the ocean.

An additional 11 million gallons, or 18.4 gallons a second, was released during repairs.

"On the local level we can work with the local water authorities but by law they are not forced to communicate back, just by good will," said Oscar Romo with California State Parks.

Romo met with the director of Urban Control and Environmental Protection with the city of Tijuana Wednesday, and took a tour of the estuary and southern part of the estuary "where much of the sediment trash and waster water flows come in."

The three met to discuss ways to improve cross border cooperation, like a project to create sediment basins in Mexico to trap solid waste and Environmental Education Centers on both sides of the border.

The mayors of Tijuana and Tecate will attend the next Tijuana River Estuary Advisory Board meeting March 17, where Romo hopes formal agreements are signed to increase joint efforts.

Mexican cities can take steps to improve infrastructure but jurisdiction for water quality issues often lie in the hands of the state and federal government in Mexico, he said.

"We need to come up with some new language and propose something to the right agencies. We need to elevate this to the state and federal government," he said.

The governor of Baja California has appointed his state's secretary of Public Works to  begin talks to create agreements for notification should an event like the recent spill happen again and impact water on both sides of the border.

The International Boundary and Water Commission met with environmentalists and about 40 members of the community for a forum at the Tijuana Estuary Meeting Room last Thursday evening.

Though history of the commission and the estuary were discussed and the event was scheduled well in advance of knowledge of a sewage spill, the broken pipe became a focus of the night's meeting.

The overwhelming opinion of the audience seemed to be the inability to notify Mexican citizens or American officials so action can be taken.

In the event of a spill impacting shoreline on both sides of the border, the Mexican half of the IBWC is supposed to file a report which is given to the U.S. half to tell the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health, the city of Imperial Beach and others.

Frontier Project of Environmental Education (PFEA) director Margarita Diaz, a resident of Playas de Tijuana, said she began hearing complaints from her neighbors about the sewage spill around the beginning of the year.

Persistent questions by PFEA and ultimately notifying media on both sides of the border brought the issue to light weeks later before any beach closures were announced in Mexico.

Meanwhile, beaches on the U.S. side of the border in Imperial Beach were closed on and off since Dec. 18 due in part to heavy flow of sewage contaminated water from the Tijuana River watershed.

She said she saw real effort to solve the problem but found systems to notify people on both sides of the border dysfunctional.

"It was an accident," she said. "They don't have control of accidents. But they control advising. People have a right to know that the quality of the water isn't the best or they should close the beach."

This is a big problem, she said, but also a great opportunity. The lack is not in the water authority, but in proper procedure should contaminated water impact Mexico or the United States.

"We don't have a good protocol. An opening and closure protocol at the beach. And these events show very clearly that we don't have this protocol."

A report is expected out soon by Mexican officials to study and give a full explanation to what happened, said Oscar Romo with California State Parks.

City manager Gary Brown and Ewan Moffatt with the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health were also in attendance.