Water quality stemming from pollution in the Tijuana River has long been an issue. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
According to a new report, billions of gallons of contaminated sewage is flowing from the Tijuana River in Mexico into South San Diego, California.
“South San Diego County is in a total state of emergency related to transboundary pollution, and this is a public health ticking time bomb,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre told ABC News. “We are living in conditions that nobody in this great nation should be living in.”
Pollution in the Tijuana River has long been an issue. Under the specifications of the U.S. Clean Water Act, the river is classified as in impaired water body. Mexico, however, doesn’t have the same regulations. The river flows for around 120 miles from Mexico before it hits the Pacific Ocean on the American side of the border, where it empties into the coastal areas of Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, and Coronado.
“South swells push the stuff northward wreaking havoc on ocean water quality on both sides of the border,” wrote Dylan Heyden for The Inertia in 2019. “During wet weather events, that situation is only made worse, putting stress on aging Mexican wastewater infrastructure leading to sewage spills like one that saw some 143 million gallons of sewage enter the Pacific in 2017.”
The San Diego State University’s (SDSU) School of Public Health called the contamination crossing the border a “public health crisis” and said that the “current regulation and monitoring measures are inadequate.”
In the course of the last five years, some 100 billion gallons of sewage, including waste water and urban runoff have entered the Tijuana River. Imperial Beach, which is the southernmost city in California, has had its beach closed for over two years now due to the high levels of contamination flowing into the ocean from the river.
“Extreme events related to climate change are only anticipated to become more frequent and intense, increasing the urgency for a solution to this crisis,” the authors of the report wrote. “Contaminated water is flowing into the ocean year-round, and, especially after rain events, has forced beach closures in the region for several years, however, this problem does not just adversely affect beachgoers and surfers exposed to contaminated seawater. Exposures impact the health of people who live and work nearby like children, seniors, lifeguards, military personnel, border patrol officers and other at-risk populations.”
When researchers looked at soil samples from the region, they found arsenic and cadmium at levels that far exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s thresholds for safety. The report also stated that antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli and Legionella bacteria can be found in the water coming from the river.
“Urgent interventions are needed to help reduce and address both the immediate and long-term potential health repercussions to those living near this hazardous environment,” Paula Stigler Granados, associate professor in SDSU’s School of Public Health and the paper’s lead author, told ABC News. “The longer we take to stop the contamination, the greater the risk of exposures. Investment in our infrastructure to stop the pollution is critical.”
