The editorial board operates independently from the U-T newsroom but holds itself to similar ethical standards. We base our editorials and endorsements on reporting, interviews and rigorous debate, and strive for accuracy, fairness and civility in our section. What do you think">Let us know.
The Biden istration’s slow-motion reaction to the worsening sewage crisis that has long punished hundreds of thousands of people in San Diego County’s South Bay is often explained away. Federal officials, we’re told, don’t have much leeway on when emergency aid can be provided. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s website shows the opposite is true. It notes that at the request of the governor of the affected state, the president can declare a major disaster for any natural or man-made event “regardless of cause” if the president finds the disaster “has caused damage of such severity that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond.” That’s a step that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has steadfastly said he won’t take, disregarding calls from local mayors, county supervisors and House for the federal government to act immediately to expedite sewage infrastructure repairs.
The contrast with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is telling. On Dec. 13, Lee and the White House announced the approval of his request for a federal disaster declaration to provide expedited aid to four counties hit by tornadoes and severe storms on Dec. 9. Six people were killed, more than 60 were injured and more than 1,000 structures damaged, including at least 270 homes left uninhabitable.
By any measure, this is a disaster in which federal aid is appropriate. But it is dwarfed by the scope and length of the South Bay’s sewage catastrophe, which has accelerated in the last decade. Since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons of feces-laced effluent have entered the area through the Tijuana River. This doesn’t just force constant beach closures and foul the air. A Scripps Institution of Oceanography study linked 34,000 illnesses in 2017 to water pollution in the region. That suggests hundreds of thousands of locals have been sickened in recent years. Among the hardest hit: Border Patrol agents. In November, two South Bay urgent care doctors said they believed that the main reason the harsh effects of E. coli bacteria were not more widely known was because so few patients were tested for exposure. It’s plain this disaster “has caused damage of such severity that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond.”
This history is why San Diegans should welcome the effort launched Dec. 28 by San Diego Coastkeeper and Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation to sue the International Boundary and Water Commission — which plays a key role in border sewage management — over violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Similar lawsuits have led to settlements in which the federal government agrees to live up to its responsibilities. Will legal exposure compel such a decision by the Biden istration? That’s unknowable. But since public opinion and political pressure aren’t working to get our most powerful leaders to take our nightmare seriously, any additional steps toward that end are welcome.
