Officials from the U.S. Border Patrol, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department and the Nogales Fire Department remove one of two bodies from the wash. The men, thought to be illegal immigrants, were caught in floodwaters.

James Gregg / arizona daily star

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NOGALES, Ariz. — Two bodies of suspected illegal immigrants were recovered from the storm-flooded Nogales Wash Monday as crews tried to repair a damaged section of the concrete-lined water channel.

At 2:10 p.m. Monday, repair workers — who minutes earlier had to leave the wash due to rising water levels caused by recent storms — spotted two bodies floating in the water near Morley Avenue and Bankard Street in Nogales, said Jesus Gomez, fire marshal with the city of Nogales Fire Department.

The workers were placing sandbags, rocks, dirt and concrete to reinforce a 200-foot section of wash where the concrete floor had been carried downstream by floodwaters Saturday night, exposing a pipe carrying raw sewage.

Officials found the two bodies farther downstream within the next two hours, said Heriberto Zuniga, Nogales police captain.

The men are suspected illegal immigrants who were trying to get into the United States through the underground tunnel. Nogales police had received a report of two men who were stuck in the wash Sunday night and who hadn't been found, Zuniga said.

The two aren't the first bodies found floating in the wash in recent years, but they're the first recovered this year, Zuniga said. Illegal immigrants and drug smugglers often use the underground tunnels beneath the two cities of Nogales to sneak into the United States. When rains come, they are in danger.

On Saturday night, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers rescued three illegal immigrants who were trapped in the wash.

"It is something we are concerned with and something that happens every year," said Brian Levin, Customs and Border Protection spokesman. "It is an extremely dangerous thing to do — it goes without saying."

Monday's rain runoff — which caused water in the wash to rise to more than 5 feet deep — likely swept away much of the dirt and gravel that had been placed in the damaged sections of the wash, said Flavio Gonzalez, utilities director for the city of Nogales, Ariz.

Due to the rain and high levels of water, workers were unable to work in the wash Monday afternoon. "It is a major setback for us," Gonzalez said.

Without the concrete floor, a 30-inch pipe called the international outfall interceptor is exposed. The pipe carries about 18 million gallons of raw sewage a day from Nogales, Sonora, to Nogales, Ariz., on its way to a treatment plant about 8 1/2 miles north of the border in Rio Rico, Gonzalez said.

A break in the sewage line would send raw sewage spilling into the Santa Cruz River and pose a risk to many communities north of the border, including Tucson.

"If that IOI ruptures right now, you have 17,000 gallons of raw sewage a minute coming down, potentially hitting your back doors," Gonzalez said. "We are not trying to panic the public; we do have it under control. But I just concern myself because of the potential danger."

It is the second straight year that the 76-year-old wash has been damaged by floodwaters, putting the pipe at risk. This year's damage is about 50 yards north of the section that had been damaged last year.

Because the damage occurred earlier in the monsoon season, officials consider it more serious this time around because of the threat of more storms. "Fighting Mother Nature is not a fun task," Gonzalez said.

Nogales, Ariz., has declared a state of emergency and is waiting for a response from the state, Mayor Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel said. The mayor is planning to meet with Arizona's congressional delegation to ask for funds for repairs.

The repair estimate for the damaged 200-foot section is estimated at $500,000. In May, the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission paid $500,000 to repair the 150-foot section of wash damaged last year.

Garcia-Von Borstel said he has met with the mayor of Nogales, Sonora, Marco Antonio Martínez Dabdoub, to ensure that the two cities are coordinating their efforts. An estimated 70 percent of the raw sewage in the pipe comes from Nogales, Sonora, Garcia-Von Borstel said. The Mexican city dwarfs its U.S. counterpart with a population of 400,000, compared with 20,000 in Nogales, Ariz.

"This is an international problem," Garcia-Von Borstel said.

To avoid having to make yearly patch repairs, the entire wash, much of which was built in the 1930s, would have to be replaced and the sewer line moved, Gonzalez said. That could cost more than $100 million, he added.

City officials and shop owners across the border in Nogales, Sonora, spent Monday cleaning up from the damage inflicted by Saturday night's floodwaters.

The Ruiz Cortinez street, commonly known as Calle Elias, has been closed since Friday to all traffic when rain first caused a small sinkhole, said Jesus Robles, a project coordinator with the Nogales, Sonora, Public Works. The street runs north and south, starting at the international line.

Saturday's floods caused a 50-foot section of street located above the wash to cave in, Robles said. Using a backhoe, workers have since removed the entire damaged section, leaving a gaping hole large enough to fit two tractors.

City officials plan to leave it open until they begin reconstructing a nearly 1,000-foot section of wash that has been damaged since last year and is slated for complete repairs, Robles said. Last August, Nogales officials estimated the repairs would cost $2.5 million.

There is no timeline for the project, he said.

Area businesses have suffered thousands of dollars in damage from Saturday's rains.

The Bonorand Gamas customs agency, about 60 feet from the border on Ruiz Cortinez, suffered an estimated $30,000 in damage, said Fernando Rivero, an employee at the business. A pile of wet carpet sat outside the store on the street as workers swept up debris inside.

Around the corner at Mariscos Mazatlan, owner Jesus Daniel Rojo estimated that he lost at least $2,000 worth of food when water reached 5 feet high inside his small restaurant, which is about 50 feet from the Morley Avenue pedestrian entrance.

Fernando Garcia, owner of El Cambiazo money-exchange store, said his business suffered at least $2,000 in damage when the water destroyed computers, televisions, a desk and a bill counter.

At the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry, in downtown Nogales, the SENTRI lane reopened Monday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Levin said. The lane — Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection — had been closed since Saturday night when a sinkhole appeared.

The Morley pedestrian entrance remained closed Monday as Mexican officials repaired International Street. It had been closed since Saturday evening because of flood damage.

Nearly everyone in the border region is concerned about the possible damage that more rain could cause.

"We are stable right now, and again I have great confidence in our staff that we are going to do everything we can to protect that IOI and the wash and the people of Nogales, but you can never really know," Garcia-Von Borstel said.