{"id":12632,"date":"2025-06-25T04:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T04:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12632\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T04:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T04:58:09","slug":"supervisors-advance-action-plan-for-tijuana-river-sewage-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12632\/","title":{"rendered":"Supervisors advance action plan for Tijuana River sewage crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Border-sewage.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Border-sewage.jpg\" alt=\"U.S.-Mexico border\" class=\"wp-image-279885\"  \/><\/a>Raw sewage flows along the Tijuana River between the borders next to Tijuana in San Diego. (Photo by Mike Bake\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegocounty.gov\/content\/sdc\/bos.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Board of Supervisors<\/a> voted 3-1 Tuesday to advance a proposed action plan in response to the ongoing Tijuana River sewage crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Supervisors directed Ebony Shelton, chief administrative officer, to present recommendations to the board on Sept. 30. Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone no vote.<\/p>\n<p>According to information on the supervisors\u2019 Tuesday meeting agenda, plan options are:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>designating a county sewage crisis chief<\/li>\n<li>matching funds used to improve air quality at schools with better filtration and cooling\/heating systems<\/li>\n<li>conducting an epidemiological public health impact study on chronic hydrogen sulfide exposure<\/li>\n<li>an economic study on how the sewage crisis has affected small businesses, property values and regional tourism<\/li>\n<li>matching funds to help eliminate \u201ctoxic hot spots\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer sponsored the proposal, in partnership with Paloma Aguirre, Imperial Beach mayor and a candidate for the District  supervisor seat.<\/p>\n<p>The sewage crisis is also a public health emergency, Lawson-Remer said before the vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear constantly from families in my district and across the South Bay about kids who are getting sick, beaches that are closed,\u201d said Lawson-Remer, who represents District 3.<\/p>\n<p>She said the county\u2019s congressional delegation has secured $650 million to fix the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibwc.gov\/wastewater-treatment-plants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/a>, but that will take years to finish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need a county-level plan that meets this moment \u2014 clear, strategic and ready to go when funding opens up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Voters on July 1 will decide if Aguirre or Chula Vista Mayor John McCann will fill the District 1 vacancy left by Nora Vargas, who departed in January.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, after Tuesday\u2019s vote, Aguirre said she was glad the county \u201cis finally stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real solution to this outrageous crisis still depends on Washington and Mexico stepping up,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean the county should sit on the sidelines and wait while South County families suffer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow we need to keep (President) Donald Trump\u2019s feet to the fire because for all his tough talk on the border, South County\u2019s sewage crisis continues to be given lip service,\u201d Aguirre added.<\/p>\n<p>McCann didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement after the vote, Desmond said the plan didn\u2019t focus on Mexico taking more responsibility in solving the sewage problem, and \u201cwas nothing more than a (bandage).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI appreciate the attention being given to the Tijuana River crisis,\u201d Desmond said, \u201cbut (the proposal) doesn\u2019t address the root problem \u2014 raw sewage and industrial waste pouring into our country from Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that if Mexico wasn\u2019t polluting the county coastline, there wouldn\u2019t be an issue with \u201ctoxic air at our schools or public health \u2018hotspots,&#8217;\u201d Desmond said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t need another study, and I don\u2019t believe appointing a \u2018sewage crisis chief\u2019 is going to suddenly stop Mexico from dumping sewage into San Diego,\u201d he added. \u201cWe need real solutions, not more bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City News Service contributed to this article. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raw sewage flows along the Tijuana River between the borders next to Tijuana in San Diego. (Photo by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[13231,5229,1582,276,13232,2128,3549,12051,7264,13233,12052,13234,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,13235],"class_list":{"0":"post-12632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-action-plan","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-paloma-aguirre","13":"tag-pollution","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county-board-of-supervisors","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-sewage","18":"tag-terra-lawson-remer","19":"tag-tijuana-river","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-vote"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114742238271423510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}