(BrightPress.org) – Each day, millions of gallons of sewage go through a canyon into the Pacific Ocean, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Summer swells push this toxic mix northward, affecting San Diego beaches. Additional treated and untreated sewage from the Tijuana River spills into the sea, just north of the border.
The odor of fecal bacteria often permeates the quaint town of Imperial Beach. Mayor Paloma Aguirre has called the discharges one of the largest environmental disasters that hardly anyone knows of.
If this crisis were caused by a hurricane or wildfire, it might prompt an emergency declaration and release recovery funds. Instead, beach lovers and politicians are dealing with prolonged efforts to upgrade infrastructure on both sides of the border.
The overworked International Wastewater Treatment Plant on the U.S. side, built to treat Mexican sewage, has struggled with increased volume in the past two years. Plant managers expect normal operations to resume in August. Meanwhile, Baja California plans to complete crucial repairs to Tijuana’s sewage infrastructure soon after, investing $530 million from 2023 to 2027.
Former Tijuana Mayor Kurt Honold, now Baja California’s secretary of economy and innovation, stated that children playing in the ocean often get sick, and beachgoers’ wounds have a very high chance of getting infected. He emphasized that both U.S. and Mexican waters are being polluted.
San Diego County health officials have effectively closed the beach north of the U.S.-Mexico border for more than three years. Near the Imperial Beach pier, “Keep out of water” signs have been posted intermittently since 2021, affecting both surfers and summer tourism.
Mayor Aguirre, an environmentalist turned politician, highlighted the socioeconomic factors contributing to the crisis. She believes if this crisis affected a white, wealthy town, state and federal officials would have solved it long ago.
The International Wastewater Treatment Plant, managed by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) under U.S.-Mexico treaty agreements, is designed to treat 25 million gallons daily. However, breakdowns in Tijuana’s infrastructure and Tropical Storm Hilary have reduced treatment capacity to 22.7 million gallons per day.
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