Sewage water filled with trash flow down the Tijuana River on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 in Imperial Beach, California. No one denies the sewage and toxic chemicals polluting the Tijuana River watershed is a crisis. But does the situation warrant an emergency declaration?
In an early June letter to Newsom, all mayors in San Diego County made the point that the “reprehensible conditions in the Tijuana River Valley” fall within the Emergency Services Act’s definition of a “state of emergency.” Simply put, the failing and outdated South Bay International Treatment Plant that has allowed Tijuana sewage to foul South County shorelines is a federal facility in a federally controlled area.
They said the state must help accelerate major infrastructure solutions along the U.S.-Mexico border under the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed comprehensive plan, not just advocate for federal funding to fix and expand the South Bay plant, a long-delayed and expensive undertaking that suffered a $150 million setback.