Years ago, in a moment of despair over the utter dead-end that solving the Tijuana River sewage crisis seemed to be, I asked U.S. officials why we don’t just cross the border and start fixing broken pipes in Mexico.
As you walk along the Tijuana River Valley, it’s hard not to smell the pungent smell of sewage, effluent flowing its way down the valley toward the Pacific Ocean.
It’s been a problem for decades as Tijuana’s sewage infrastructure has failed to keep up with a city that seemingly grew to two million residents overnight. The system constantly spews untreated raw sewage that eventually makes its way north of the border.
A $5 million cleanup project in the Tijuana River Valley will begin in early 2024, with a completion date before the end of March, officials said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in favor of dredging drainage channels and building a basin for sediment and trash control in the Smuggler’s Gulch and Pilot channels.
In the endless urban sprawl of Southern California, the Tijuana River Valley looks like a serene break of green before the sprawl resumes on the other side of the border.
But the seemingly bucolic area is where representatives from the California Coastal Commission met on Wednesday to see first hand how sewage in the river has made people in adjacent communities sick and affected state lands.
The Tijuana River sewage emergency has reached the state level once again.
All 18 mayors in San Diego County have sent another letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking for his help to address the ongoing sewage and chemical pollutants flowing into the ocean from the river.
Beaches remain closed from the border to south Coronado, but a slough of officials in recent days has elevated calls to fund a long-term solution to pollution from the Tijuana River.
Public health officials have long known that sewage-ladened coastal waters threaten the health of swimmers and surfers. However, new research shows that this common form of water pollution might also pose health risks to those who stay ashore.
Bacteria and pollutants found in sewage-tainted water can be ejected into the atmosphere via sea spray aerosols—tiny droplets that form when waves break—according to a study published in Environmental Science and Technology.
For more than a decade Imperial Beach has been contaminated with bacteria flowing in from Mexico.
“I don’t feel safe letting my kids go into the water because it’s all polluted, and it’s sad,” said Carla Diaz, a former Imperial Beach resident.
San Diego’s southernmost beaches are blighted by sewage that spills into the cross-border Tijuana River and flows to the ocean. Before 2022, the best available coastal water testing technology took so long to furnish results that public health officials couldn’t surmise how safe the water was until days after visitors swam in it.
Tijuana is paying California for more water than it has in recent years as the city faces a growing population coupled with blistering drought that’s gripping the entire West.
Northern Baja is entitled by treaty to 1.5-million-acre feet of Colorado River water per year, which is Tijuana’s primary water source. But for years the amount that goes to Tijuana hasn’t been enough to quench demand.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
