EPA Head Pushes Mexico to Address Tijuana River Sewage in Recent San Diego VisitSan Diego County communities have lamented public health impacts...

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EPA Head Pushes Mexico to Address Tijuana River Sewage in Recent San Diego VisitSan Diego County communities have lamented public health impacts...
EPA Head Pushes Mexico to Address Tijuana River Sewage in Recent San Diego Visit
San Diego County communities have lamented public health impacts of sewage pollution in the watershed, which crosses from Mexico into California before flowing into the ocean.

Tijuana and San Diego County share a border, and millions of gallons of sewage cross it each day. Credit: Kevin Carter via Getty Images

Each day, the Tijuana River carries millions—and sometimes billions—of gallons of sewage across the U.S.-Mexico border into California, where it dumps into the ocean. This wave of waste frequently overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in both countries, fueling a public health and environmental crisis in nearby San Diego communities. The problem has gotten worse in recent years as budget-strapped infrastructure deteriorates and climate change fuels increasingly intense storms.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, visited San Diego County to urge a “100 percent solution” from Mexico and the U.S. for ending the flow of untreated wastewater. He told reporters that a meeting with Mexico officials went well but stressed that the U.S. is “all out of patience.”

“There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere,” Zeldin said at a press conference.

Local leaders and residents are tentatively optimistic about the visit, but their hopes are tempered by years of unfulfilled promises from former officials.

A History of Sludge: The Tijuana River spans around 120 miles through northwest Baja California and the Tijuana River Valley in southern California, supporting an abundance of wildlife, plants and people.

Tijuana, Mexico, has struggled to keep pace with its population boom in recent decades. Part of the problem is that more people means more waste. During its winding journey to the Pacific Ocean, the Tijuana River is polluted by sewage, trash and industrial chemicals from urban areas, where people often dump refuse directly into the water or onto the streets, where it washes in. There are two main treatment plants to remove solids, pathogens and contaminants from the sludge—the San Antonio de los Buenos Treatment Plant in Mexico and the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego.

But both plants have grown increasingly dilapidated over the years of constant use, and much of the wastewater passes by into California untreated.

As a result, doctors and researchers have documented a surge in gastrointestinal illnesses in San Diego communities around the border, particularly in Imperial Beach, San Ysidro and Coronado. A growing body of research has identified unsafe levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air surrounding sewage hotspots in the river.

A recent report from the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General found that around 1,100 cases of illness were documented among Navy SEALs and other service members who were exposed to the sewage-laden waters in recent years. Some beaches in the area have been closed for over 1,000 days to prevent more public health risks. One study found that bacteria from sewage pollution has even infiltrated ocean spray in the air after a wave crashes.

The problem is particularly bad during storms such as the atmospheric rivers that slammed San Diego in 2024, which I covered last February. I spoke to public officials and residents about the issue, including Jose Cariman, a San Ysidro resident. He confirmed what you have probably all been thinking when you heard the word “sewage”: Yes, it smells.

“It’s horrible,” he told me last year. “The quality of life is diminished a lot, the price of the house is diminished ’cause who wants to buy a house in the neighborhood that smells like sewage?”

Due to the ongoing pollution and lack of investment in sewage infrastructure in the region, the nonprofit advocacy group American Rivers deemed the Tijuana as the second most endangered river in the U.S. in a recent report.

Attached link

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29042025/todays-climate-epa-head-tijuana-river-sewage-san-diego/?utm_campaign=Waterline%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Dw1Z8DnPYHTchiWt6eM8hTVtz-UBauVj9WLbxAK0ArrvzYDscUmIFeQ3zW-SNxIlwGDUyp8OtxMs_jjjqZ2hhCzOo0A&_hsmi=360247797&utm_content=360246661&utm_source=hs_email&hsCtaTracking=31e3608b-c183-4e6b-8c9f-cd3d239562be%7C2b619e2c-e9a5-482d-83d5-0cd2a24ced19

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