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War of Words Heats up Over International Efforts to Clean up Border Sewage

Baja California Gov. Jaime Bonilla is involved in a war of words with a California mayor over cleanup efforts along the Tijuana River Valley, which lies between Tijuana and the city of San Diego.

For decades, raw sewage, trash and debris have flowed from south of the border into the U.S.

Most of those materials, especially the raw sewage, end up in the Pacific Ocean, forcing the closure of beaches in cities like Imperial Beach where over the last nine months, beaches have been closed 180 days due to high bacteria levels in the ocean water.

EPA Announces Short-Term Projects to Plug Border Sewage Flow

Emphasizing the “unprecedented” bipartisan cooperation between local and state governments, Border Patrol and the International Boundary & Water Commission, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced short-term projects Wednesday to plug the international sewage flow across the U.S.-Mexico border.

As Tijuana Sewage Pollutes South San Diego Beaches, County Asks for Federal Help

South San Diego County’s ocean waters are awash in sewage-tainted runoff coming across the border and local and state officials want action to stop the polluted flows.

Sixty million gallons of sewage-tainted water flows into the U.S. every day.

“The entire sewer system of Tijuana has collapsed,” said Serge Dedina, Imperial Beach mayor. “And it appears there is absolutely no effort underway in Mexico, on the part of the U..S federal government, the Trump administration, to actually move forward and ask for emergency repairs so that we don’t endure an entire summer of polluted beaches.”