SAN DIEGO — A new report released by SDSU’s School of Public Health researchers finds an escalating and dangerous public health crisis due to Tijuana River contamination flowing from Mexico into San Diego.
“I think I have described the cross-border sewage flows from Mexico into the United States as one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in the western hemisphere. It’s also a massive public health threat, and this study brings us more evidence of that,” said Congressman Scott Peters. “We’re getting visits in clinics, in emergency rooms.”
Congressman Scott Peters asked for the report, which is a compilation of more than 60 previous studies, to build the case for more federal funding. The most significant finding is direct risk of exposure to the public through the skin, breathing and ingesting.
“Bacterial infections, viral infections, parasitic infections — all of these are a result of exposure to this runoff.”
The report was commissioned by the Prebys Foundation and shows how toxic chemicals and microbes in the raw, untreated sewage, industrial waste, and urban run-off, once thought to stay to just the water, can also be airborne and remain in the soil, which could have much larger and farther-reaching health consequences.
Imperial Beach’s Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who has been fighting this issue for decades, sees the problem worsening with climate change and the presumption of continuing atmospheric rain storms.
Imperial Beach has seen more than 700 consecutive days of beach closures.
“Tropical Storm Hilary brought 3 billion gallons of sewage-tainted water to our coast. The Jan. 22 storm brought 14.5 billion gallons of toxic sewage and chemicals, contaminating our air and our coastal waters,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said.
$300 million is already set aside to repair the South Bay wastewater treatment plant, but that is not nearly enough. According to Congressman Peters, the total coast is roughly $650 million.
“We really need to get Congress to approve this money. So it’s important to gather evidence that really drives home the severity of this problem, and we know that people are getting sick.”