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OPINION: Never-Ending Tijuana Sewage Nightmare A Failure Of Leadership

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego County residents have in recent days had yet another reminder of the utter failure of the local, state and federal governments in the United States and Mexico to solve an awful ongoing problem. That reminder came in the form of nearly 57 million gallons of water tainted by sewage, carcinogenic chemicals and pesticides pouring into the United States last week via the Tijuana River because of broken, inadequate sewer infrastructure on the Mexican side of the border. This has become a terrible fact of life. Sewage spills from Tijuana have fouled San Diego’s coastal waters for years, and the southern shoreline of Imperial Beach has been closed since November.

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Years Into Tijuana Sewage Crisis, California Senators Call for Federal Help

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Ken Stone

A group of Democratic senators and San Diego County-based congressional representatives sent a letter to multiple federal agencies Tuesday urging them to address sewage runoff in the Tijuana River, which then flows into the Pacific Ocean. California Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, Scott Peters, D-San Diego, Susan Davis, D-San Diego, and Mike Levin, D-Dana Point, co-signed the letter addressed to the directors of the U.S. Department of State, Environmental Protection Agency, Customs and Border Protection, Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees bodies of water that traverse the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Sewage Spill Continues To Pollute Tijuana River For Third Straight Day

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

A sewage spill that federal officials said started Monday night south of the border continues to flood the Tijuana River with millions of gallons of raw effluent. A ruptured collector pipe in southeast Tijuana is leaking roughly 7 million gallons a day of sewage into the river, according to the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The IBWC said utility officials in Baja would attempt to divert the flows Wednesday from the Tijuana River back into CESPT’s wastewater treatment system.

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California Sues Federal Government Over Tijuana Sewage Spilling Into San Diego

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

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit Tuesday night against the Trump administration, alleging that the federal government violated the Clean Water Act by allowing, in recent years, millions of gallons of raw sewage, heavy metals and other contamination to routinely spill from Tijuana into San Diego. Toxic water pollution from Mexico shuttered San Diego beaches located near the Tijuana River Valley on more than 500 days in the last three years, according to the complaint.

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Judge Allows South Bay Lawsuit Over Tijuana Sewage Overflows To Move Ahead

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Kristina Davis

A lawsuit brought by South Bay cities alleging the federal government is not doing enough to prevent and treat the flow of Tijuana sewage into the U.S. can move forward, a San Diego federal judge ordered this week. The ruling, filed Wednesday, comes a day after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller toured pumps and water-capture basins in the Tijuana River Valley to get a first-hand look at the issue. The order allows the lawsuit to proceed on claims that the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission violated the Clean Water Act by allowing wastewater from canyon water-capture basins to spill into the surrounding environment without the proper permit.

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In Rare Move, Federal Judge Presiding Over Tijuana Sewage Lawsuit Tours Border

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

Federal court judge Jeffrey T. Miller toured the Tijuana River Valley for several hours on Tuesday to observe pumps and canyon collectors along the border intended to prevent sewage from spilling into San Diego. The unusual move comes as the result of a contentious legal battle in which Miller must decide whether the Trump administration is doing enough to stop sewage that routinely pours into the United States from Mexico.

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In Rare Move, Federal Judge Presiding Over Tijuana Sewage Lawsuit Tours Border

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

Federal court judge Jeffrey T. Miller toured the Tijuana River Valley for several hours on Tuesday to observe pumps and canyon collectors along the border intended to prevent sewage from spilling into San Diego. The unusual move comes as the result of a contentious legal battle in which Miller must decide whether the Trump administration is doing enough to stop sewage that routinely pours into the United States from Mexico. The cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista, as well as the Port of San Diego, sued the federal government in March, alleging violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

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Coronado Mayor, Chief Of EPA Discuss Repeated Tijuana Sewage Spills

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gustavo Solis

Coronado’s mayor flew to Oklahoma this week to talk with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency about possible solutions to the recurring Tijuana sewage spills that sully the San Diego County coastline. Mayor Richard Bailey and Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke one-on-one for about 20 minutes Tuesday during an annual meeting between leading environmental experts and regulators from Mexico, the United States and Canada. “We discussed possible next steps and (Pruitt) expressed a strong desire for some tangible progress in the very near future,” Mayor Richard Bailey said.

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OPINION: Tijuana Sewage Spills Finally Get The Attention They Deserve

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

Effluent from Tijuana’s broken sewage system coming ashore in the United States has become a routine part of life on San Diego County’s southern coast. It’s why parts of the Imperial Beach shoreline were closed more than five months a year in each of 2015, 2016 and 2017, and why dozens of Border Patrol agents have been sickened by exposure to the muck.

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