Why this matters
Significant sources of wastewater pollution are not being treated by the federal wastewater treatment plant. The county wants to eliminate hotspots that are impacting the health of nearby communities. Little is known about chronic exposure to hydrogen sulfide.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a series of measures Tuesday directing resources toward mitigating the Tijuana River sewage crisis, including asking the state for $50 million to directly address a hotspot that has been releasing toxic gasses.
Supervisor Paloma Aguirre pushed for the county to launch a public health study on chronic health effects from inhaling hydrogen sulfide, the gas scientists have been monitoring at high levels in surrounding neighborhoods, as well redirect $270,000 in funds earmarked for a park in the river valley by her predecessor Supervisor Nora Vargas to instead go toward rebuilding the toxic site at Saturn Boulevard.
“We’re not going to build a brick and mortar building in the middle of the floodplain in the middle of a public health crisis,” Aguirre said at a press conference on Monday announcing the proposal. “What we’re going to do is use that money to remove the source.”
The board passed the measures unanimously and complimented one another across party lines. More public officials have been promising solutions and calling for action to address the Tijuana sewage issue. Earlier this year, President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited the area and promised fast-track solutions. Aguirre took office in July after running on addressing the pollution issue. She filled the vacancy Vargas left when she resigned shortly after winning reelection.
Other approved measures called for an economic impact study on what the pollution crisis has cost the local economy and a plan to advocate for more federal support.
For decades billions of gallons of wastewater have been flowing down the Tijuana River, impacting the health of communities along its path. For just as long, environmental advocates and local leaders have been calling for resources to address the problem which has worsened.
More recently research by Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Paula Stigler Granados, a public health researcher at San Diego State University, offered scientific evidence supporting years of community health complaints related to the sewage crisis.
“We’ve known the Tijuana River is contaminated with dangerous chemicals and pathogens,” Granados said Monday at the press conference. “But now we’re discovering that these toxic gasses from this polluted water are also seeping into homes and businesses, especially at night.”
While scientists were raising alarms about how gasses from the river are polluting the air, Vargas was moving forward with her “Gateway to the Californias” project, a park in Imperial Beach near the river. The park was meant to attract tourists in the area.
The project, which would have included a sports complex and a community and business hub on part of the county-owned Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, stalled with her departure.
Residents and advocates attended Tuesday’s supervisors meeting and recounted the physical and emotional impact of living near the river.
Bethany Case, a resident of Imperial Beach as well as an organizer with San Diego Surfrider’s Clean Border Water Now initiative, recounted in public comment how the gas from the river overwhelmed her.
“I’m not going to say anything that you don’t know,” Case said. “What I am going to tell you is that I’ve been feeling awful since Sunday.”
Then she drove her son to school the next morning.
“And guess what? Right at Hollister and Leon, terrible smell.”