By any objective standard, the southern coast of San Diego County is enduring a long-running environmental nightmare. Decades of billions of gallons of untreated human waste flowing north from broken sewage infrastructure in Tijuana have sickened a vast number of surfers and swimmers and many Navy SEALs training at Coronado. Especially because of ailments reported by border agents, some doctors worry that the health threat goes far beyond active ocean s to include those who spend extended time in coastal areas and breathe air that often smells like a filthy portable toilet.
Now there is fresh confirmation of how uniquely awful this problem is. The Surfrider Foundation has released a report on 567 sites in which it tested water for unsafe bacteria levels and found Imperial Beach — which has been closed for more than two years — had far and away the dirtiest water in the United States. Every single water sample from the beach was found to be unsafe. The next worst U.S. beach had a little more than half its samples with excessive bacteria. This finding was no surprise, given previous studies showing heavy metals, toxic chemicals and bacteria in sewage from south of the border. In 2017 alone — when sewage spills were common but not nearly as severe as in recent years — 34,000 illnesses were linked to local water pollution, according to a a Scripps Institution of Oceanography study.
But what remains a surprise is how little is being done to immediately address this problem. While Congress has committed to spending at least $400 million on upgrading sewage facilities to limit spills, the fixes won’t be finished for several years. Relief is far from imminent. This is entirely because President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have resisted calls from local elected leaders — only starting with Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre — to declare the beach crisis an emergency and clear the way for expedited federal action.
The arbitrary and punitive nature of their decisions can’t be underlined enough. , the Federal Emergency Management Agency says 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 concludes the disaster “has caused damage of such severity that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond.”
But it’s also time to call out other powerful institutional forces in California for their indifference to the crisis in the state’s second most populous county. How is this not a huge issue in the state Legislature? Why do no pundits in Sacramento or Los Angeles pay attention to the literal and figurative stench of this scandal? How is it possible that a state that views itself as the global leader on environmental issues has such a readily solvable disaster on its shores?
San Diegans are being wronged on many fronts.
