Imperial Beach. Photo: Emmanuel Acua//Unsplash
San Diego’s Imperial Beach has never had a reputation as one of America’s cleanest beaches. In fact, according to the Surfrider Foundation’s 2023 Clean Water Report, the California-Mexico border location actually holds the title as America’s most toxic. Alongside Kaua‘i’s Nāwiliwili Stream, 100 percent of the water samples at Imperial Beach showed bacteria levels exceeding state health standards.
“Two Blue Water Task Force sampling sites have the dubious distinction of failing to meet health standards every single time they were tested by Surfrider in 2023,” the report reads. The BWTF is a volunteer program that provides water quality testing. “The San Diego Chapter collects samples near the pier in Imperial Beach, California, close to the U. S./Mexico border. Local health authorities closed this Pacific Ocean beach to swimming for 322 days in 2023 to protect the public from exposure to sewage-related pathogens. Unfortunately, these closures don’t fully prevent people from getting sick as some toxins are aerosolizing and contaminating the air in Imperial Beach and other nearby border communities.”
As mentioned, this isn’t a new problem for Imperial Beach. Surfrider says the water quality poses “one of the most significant public health and environmental justice emergencies in the country,” also noting that this is a decades-long problem. The issue stems from stormwater runoff, raw sewage, harmful chemicals, and trash that floods through the nearby Tijuana River, estimating that “millions of gallons of water” flows through the area each day.
“Currents associated with the Southern California Bight carry this pollution up the coast during the summer, causing widespread illnesses on both sides of the border and forcing beach closures throughout South San Diego County,” the organization says.
According to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the hazard contributed to a staggering 34,000 illnesses in the Imperial Beach area in 2017 alone. Naturally, the problem grows exponentially during storms big and small. After 2023’s Hurricane Hilary, for example, 2.5 billion gallons of contaminated stormwater rushed through the Tijuana River Valley. Surfrider says it measured a bacteria count of 9,804 MPN/100 ml days later, which is nearly 100 times higher than the health standard for safe recreation. They say “nearly every” sample taken since then has returned bacteria levels higher than the public health standards for safe recreation.
