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U.S., Mexico Pledge Half a Billion Dollars to Fight Cross-Border Pollution From Tijuana Sewage

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Deborah Sullivan Brennan

A nearly half-billion-dollar investment in new sewage treatment facilities in Tijuana could clean up perpetually polluted beaches in San Diego, U.S. and Mexican officials say.

Officials from both countries signed a treaty through the International Boundary and Water Commission that commits to funding new sanitation projects during a ceremony at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve in Imperial Beach on Thursday.

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State Lawmakers Target Trash in Tijuana River Valley

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer

A handful of state lawmakers gathered last week on the side of the Tijuana River Estuary that’s not visibly clogged by plastics and tires spilling from Mexico down canyon gullies or down the river itself to ask the governor for money to, well, stop trash from spilling over the border.

Southern California lawmakers hope Gov. Gavin Newsom will put $100 million in next year’s budget to be split equally between the Tijuana River and the Mexicali-to-Salton-Sea-flowing New River, both sewage-plagued water bodies.

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San Diego County Unveiling New Water Testing Technology to Provide Same-Day Public Warnings

/in , , /by /CBS8

 San Diego County officials Wednesday will introduce a new water-testing technology they will begin using the very next day to provide same-day public warnings of poor coastal water quality that causes illness.

San Diego leaders say the results will be more accurate and posted within hours instead of the next day, reducing the time the public could be at risk if water is contaminated.

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Rains Turn Tijuana River Valley Into ‘Swamp of Sewage.’ but Wetlands May Need Those Flows.

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Recent rains have poured into the Tijuana River, blasting Imperial Beach with more than a billion gallons of heavily polluted water since mid-February, according to federal estimates.

Pumps operated by Mexico that suck water out of the Tijuana River have been turned off for several weeks as rains overwhelmed the system’s capacity and debris clogged the intake. Officials said it should be cleaned out and running in about a week.

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EPA Announces $630 Million Plan to Stem Cross-Border Sewage Flows

/in , , /by /High Country Newsby Jessica Kutz

In March of 2018, the California cities of Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego sued the U.S. arm of the International Boundary and Water Commission over its failure to mitigate the flow of sewage-tainted water from the Tijuana River in Mexico. The lawsuit was in response to a February 2017 crisis, when more than 200 million gallons of sewage contaminated the California coast after a winter storm damaged sewer infrastructure in Mexico (“Two countries, one border and their shared pollution,” 12/06/18).

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EPA to Address Transborder Water Pollution from Tijuana River with Infrastructure Review

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Elizabeth Ireland

The Environmental Protection Agency will move forward with environmental review of several water infrastructure projects intended to address transborder water pollution from the Tijuana River, it was announced Monday.

“In order to protect public health and vital ecosystems in this vibrant area, we need a bold solution to the transboundary water pollution challenge,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox.

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Opinion: Tainted Water and the Tijuana River — A Border Tragedy

/in , /by /Water Education Foundation by Rita Schmidt Sudman

As I walked along the ocean at Imperial Beach enjoying the sun casting shadows on the waves, several families were wading into the water seemingly not noticing the patrolling lifeguard warning them that the water was too polluted for swimming. I wondered if some swimmers heard the warning so many times – often over 200 days a year – that they became immune to the notice. After all, there was no smell and the ocean looked normal.

 

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Three Options to Deal With Border Pollution Presented at USMCA Meeting

/in , , /by /Eagle and Timesby Alessandra Selgi-Harrigan

In 2020 the U.S. government through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) committed $300 million in The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement to identify infrastructure solutions to mitigate the transboundary pollution. Infrastructure solutions for transboundary flows from the Tijuana River have been studied for the past year. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has been tasked with creating solutions, originally proposed 10 possible projects. In time the projects have been narrowed down to three, which were presented during the last virtual public information meeting on Aug. 6.

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Little Action on Border Sewage Crisis Since $300M Announcement

/in , /by /Voice of San Diego by Gustavo Solis

Rain fell on San Diego Monday. It wasn’t a lot of rain – an Accuweather forecast called for “a brief morning shower or two” with an anticipated rainfall of 0.01 inches.

But it was enough to prompt a beach closure at the Tijuana Slough, just south of Imperial Beach. That section of the beach is closed whenever the Tijuana River is flowing.

Cross-border sewage spills have been an issue in South County for decades.

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Environment Report: Tijuana and San Diego Share a Sewage Problem But Not a Solution

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer

Vicente Calderon from Tijuana Press and I spend a lot of time picking our way around the sewage-laden Tijuana River, asking ourselves: How is it still this bad? Our latest story from the cross-border sewage crisis plaguing Tijuana and San Diego illuminated that the current approach to solving the problem is a lot like putting a Band-Aid on the stomach flu. The Band-Aid in this case is $300 million that Congress has charged the Environmental Protection Agency with deciding how to spend. But really, and here’s the flu part of the allegory, a lot of Tijuana’s infrastructure is just old and broken, or was never even built to support the neighborhoods that popped up on its hillsides.

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