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Just a few months ago, the life of a fish on the Santa Cruz River was pretty blue — or rather it was brown, murky, rare and stifled by ammonia.

The completion of a long-awaited $65 million overhaul of the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant near Rio Rico has changed things drastically, and the river seems to be experiencing a resurgence of tiny fish, says Birdie Stabel, the leader of the river-watch division of the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, a nonprofit group that fought for this upgrade for more than a decade.

The plant is located on the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is designed to process nearly 15 million gallons of sewage per day, two-thirds of which comes from Nogales, Sonora.

Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, whose lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency helped get the ball rolling on the treatment-plant project, said there's been a long history, brimming with problems, associated with its operation.

"Bottom line is this should have happened a long time ago, but they have made substantial progress and we're glad," Bahr said.

Stabel and other volunteers have been monitoring the quality of the water in the river near the plant since 1992.

Stabel's husband, Nick Bleser, who also volunteers, said that, to his knowledge, it's the longest-running program of its kind in the U.S.

The group collects samples at four sites: the Chavez Siding Road Crossing, Tumacácori, Rio Rico and the Ruby Road crossing.

On Tuesday, the river watchers scooped water into beakers to test for chlorine, measured pH levels and checked the water's clarity.

Stabel said that when she first joined the group, there were definitely fish in the water, but about 10 years ago the fish almost entirely disappeared. She said this was the result of an overload at the sewage plant from the large volume of sewage coming from Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora.

Sherry Sass, the founder and current board president of the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, who also worked as a fisheries biologist years ago, said that 10 years ago the group found four native fish species — the endangered Gila topminnow, the longfin dace, the desert sucker and the Sonora sucker — in the river. But two years ago only one fish species was found, Sass said.

Stabel said they haven't yet identified the types of fish in the river and no one has removed any fish from the water to look. "It would be wonderful if they did find the endangered fish out there, but we aren't sure yet," Stabel said.

Stabel said she noticed the increasing fish population about two months ago while walking her horse near the river.

"I was just kind of idly looking down," she said, "and then I saw fish. I was so shocked."

Stabel said that last month when the river walkers met to collect data, they didn't know the new system was already being used. "We were like, 'Wow! What's happened? It's wonderful,' " she said.

John Light, area operations manager of the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, said that they started diverting some flow into the new plant on Feb. 12 and that 100 percent of the flow is currently being run through the new plant. Light said they're in the process of working out the kinks in the system and running tests.

Tom Konner, an environmental engineer for the EPA who operates out of San Francisco, also worked on the Santa Cruz County wastewater upgrade.

Konner said the old system was basically effective for what it was designed to do. However, it wasn't designed to treat for nitrogen, which is essentially another term for ammonia, like the new one is, he said. The river's water is now on par with state and federal laws, and then some, Konner said. It has the highest rating for wastewater in Arizona, he said.

Claire Zugmeyer, research assistant at the Sonoran Institute, which compiled statistics from various groups about the Santa Cruz River, said oxygen measures have increased and ammonia, nitrogen and turbidity have all decreased. She said those changes indicate an improvement in water quality.

Stabel said the river watchers' data show that the levels of nitrate, which is poisonous to fish, have decreased since the upgrade.

Life has improved for the fish, but humans are seeing benefits too.

The river watchers and the people involved in the upgrade's planning agreed the river's clarity and odor have greatly improved.

Light said he now goes to the river, which he used to avoid because of the odor, and runs his dog almost daily.

The river not only looks and smells better, it also tests better, Konner said. There's less — essentially not any — ammonia going into the river, he said.

Stabel said she was sure the river-watch group's data helped get the sewage upgrade.

But others have also had a hand in making it happen.

Bahr, of the Sierra Club, said that in the early '90s the club expressed concern the plant was undersized and would be overwhelmed with the amount of waste coming from the two border cities. Then, after the club sent a notice of intent to sue in the late '90s, a few small changes were made, she said.

"Really, they were just patchwork things, like physically patching a pipeline that was leaking raw sewage," Bahr said.

Eventually, the Sierra Club sued the EPA and lost, but Bahr said she thinks the lawsuit had an impact. She said it got a timetable set up for the wastewater upgrade.

Light said getting the project done involved working with a lot of different entities, including Nogales, Sonora; Nogales, Ariz.; and the EPA. He said he thinks the mutual support of the various groups helped make it happen.

Light said the EPA contributed $59.5 million to the project and the city of Nogales, Ariz., funded the rest.

He said he is very pleased with the system's performance so far and thinks more people will visit the river and use it for recreation as a result.

While Bahr said she was glad to see these changes, others aren't quite as reserved with their excitement.

Stabel said she is ecstatic about the changes in the river.

Still, Stabel said, the group's work isn't done. She said they're still concerned about fecal coliform bacteria in the river, but it is unclear whether it is coming from livestock or from septic tanks.

Marisa Gerber is a University of Arizona student who's apprenticing at the Star. Contact her at starapprentice@ azstarnet.com or at 807-7776.

On StarNet: For all of the Star's recent articles on the Santa Cruz River and other environmental news, go to azstarnet.com/environment