For years, raw sewage from Mexico has poured across the border into Southern California, fouling beaches, sickening residents and sparking diplomatic as well as environmental concerns.
The Tijuana River, which crosses from Mexico into California before emptying into the Pacific Ocean, carries not just water but millions of gallons of untreated sewage.
“Each day, a toxic mixture of effluents from maquiladora, Mexican factories that make products for the U.S. market, and raw sewage from Mexico pours through estuaries and out of the Tijuana River, devastating the Pacific coastline – in both Mexico and the United States,” James Cooper, professor of law at California Western School of Law, told Newsweek.
“This has been going on for decades,” Cooper said.
“Beaches, north of where the Tijuana River meets the Pacific along the coast from Imperial Beach to Coronado, are closed more often than they are open. The bacterial dangers are immense for those brave enough to get into the Pacific. Surfers who hit the waves, U.S. Navy Seals who train in the area, ranchers whose animals drink water from the watershed, sea mammals who live in the Pacific are all negatively impacted by this ongoing environmental disaster.
“And it’s even worse when it rains.”
San Diego County beaches have been closed for around 1,000 days in recent years due to contamination. Residents have reported illnesses, and military personnel stationed nearby have also suffered. A report from the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General documented 1,100 cases of illness among Navy SEALs and other service members exposed to polluted waters.
“It’s horrible,” said San Ysidro resident Jose Cariman. “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?” he told Inside Climate News.
Nonprofit advocacy group American Rivers recently named the Tijuana River the second most endangered river in the U.S., citing pollution as one of the factors.
“The Tijuana River is known for its communities on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border as well as stunning beaches, world-class surf breaks and diverse wildlife. This region, however, has been plagued with severe pollution for decades,” the group’s report said.
“Every day, millions of gallons of contaminated stormwater, sewage, harmful chemicals, and trash flow down the river into the Pacific Ocean. Protecting our communities and ensuring clean water is a non-partisan issue—it’s a matter of basic governance and national responsibility,” it said.
According to Cooper, sewage spill damage is a “growth industry.”
“There are some fixes but it will take billions of dollars and a ton of binational cooperation,” he said.
“Several studies have been made and several projects on the U.S. side were selected to help mitigate the situation, but still not much has happened to stem the problem. Mexico needs to do way more.”
The long-running issue made headlines again recently after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego and called for a “100 percent solution” from both nations.
Zeldin said that during an April 21 evening meeting, Mexican Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena expressed President Claudia Sheinbaum‘s commitment to building a strong partnership with the United States “to finally resolve the issue.”
“Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this for decades are out of patience,” Zeldin said at a news conference, as reported by The Epoch Times. “There’s a very limited opportunity. What’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation.”
According to Stephen Mumme—political science professor at Colorado State University with a focus on U.S.-Mexico environmental relations—Mexico should not shoulder all the blame.
“The problems faced at Tijuana are the result of at least 15 years of chronic underfunding by federal governments on both sides of the boundary,” he told Newsweek.
“The tale starts most recently with completion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) in 2010. That facility was designed to process 25 million gallons daily, which was in hindsight insufficient to manage Tijuana’s urban growth and its sewage production,” Mumme said.
This, combined with neglected maintenance, frequent breakdowns in Tijuana’s conveyance systems and system overloads producing renegade surface drainage “meant continued drainage to the river both south and north of the boundary, threatening riparian ecosystems, contaminating coastal waters, and producing noxious smells annoying thousands of residents in the south San Diego area,” he added.
The two nations reached agreements in 2022 on projects and costs, but Mumme suggested the renewed interest may be due to the slow pace of implementation.
A significant part of the problem, Mumme said, was also failures by the U.S. to fund repeated requests for funds to perform needed maintenance and improvement to the SBIWTP.
“Meanwhile, Trump’s DOGE is cutting operating funds to [the International Boundary and Water Commission], EPA, sans any consideration for the Tijuana sewage problem,” he said.
“So, what’s visible is financial wheels spinning in the opposite direction from what Zeldin said he wanted to see done.”
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