Last month, a congressional delegation from San Diego requested EPA support to assist the San Diego County Air Pollution District with air monitoring for neighborhoods near the Mexico border.
“In early September, high levels of noxious gases such as hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide were measured by scientific teams in the river valley and noticed by residents due to the rotten egg smell even miles from the border,” reports ABC 10 News San Diego. “Ultimately, crews from San Diego County determined there was no immediate health risk, but many residents believed the crisis had reached a turning point.”
"In the past year, researchers discovered that toxins and bacteria from the Tijuana River can be aerosolized and become airborne -- unveiling an apparent threat not only to our water ecosystems, but the air in our communities," wrote Reps. Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, and Sara Jacobs—all D-San Diego—and Mike Levin, D-Dana Point, in a letter to the EPA. "A recent heat wave in the region intensified the odors and led constituents to report that the fumes have caused them to wake up in the middle of the night."
The Tijuana River sewage crisis has been an issue for decades and continues to worsen because of increasing population, a government sewage treatment facility that’s in disrepair, and strained relations with Mexico over immigration issues, according to the San Diego Coastkeeper.
“Since October 2023, a staggering 31 billion gallons of raw sewage, polluted stormwater and trash have flowed down the Tijuana River into the Tijuana River Valley and the Pacific Ocean, closing numerous San Diego beaches, and sparking major concerns over public health risks, coastal water pollution and the degradation of the Tijuana River Estuary. This failure has significant repercussions for cross-border water quality and the well-being of communities in the San Diego region,” the Coastkeeper article says.
The San Diego delegation has secured $400 million in federal funding to improve and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant and previously called upon President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency in the area to address pollution.
Additional pleas to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from lawmakers and county officials succeeded in getting it to begin a health assessment to determine the impact of the Tijuana River Valley sewage pollution crisis.
The county and CDC are working together on a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER). A total of 210 households were selected from a larger 30-block section of homes near the border to participate in the survey. Residents were encouraged to participate and to be very vocal and honest in explaining the issues they experience, such as being unable to sleep during heat waves because of the obnoxious and overbearing odors.
“Responses will be used to guide decisions moving forward with the river valley and the people who live near it,” according to a news release issued by Varga. “The San Diego City Council recently approved a resolution asking for a national emergency regarding the sewage outflow at the border. The council had approved 31 years of consecutive extensions of a local state of emergency on the situation.”
More than 200 billion gallons of toxic waste has been documented coming into the United States through the Tijuana River Valley since October 2018.
According to a city document on the resolution, the commission has only spent $4 million of $40 million allocated for infrastructure maintenance at the broken South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, Varga’s news release adds.