Gov. Gavin Newsom says the sewage crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border does not qualify as an emergency under state statute and that is why he has not issued a declaration. So of the California Coastal Commission, following a visit Wednesday to the South Bay area affected by the ongoing toxic pollution, agreed to consider asking President Joe Biden to proclaim one.
For months, local, county and state officials have called on Newsom to use his emergency powers to waive state regulations that would expedite solutions to fix the deteriorating wastewater treatment plant in San Diego that is allowing Tijuana sewage to foul San Diego County beaches. The Governor’s Office had not publicly explained why he would not issue the order until Tuesday.
In a letter to Coastal Commission Executive Director Kate Huckelbridge, David Sapp, Newsom’s legal affairs secretary, explained that it was a jurisdictional issue and he said that “a state proclamation of emergency cannot accelerate federal work needed on this federal facility that is in a federally controlled area on an international border.”
Thus, such a proclamation is not necessary “to trigger a federal declaration,” which the president can do under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Sapp added.
Imperial Beach Mayor and Commissioner Paloma Aguirre, who has spearheaded calls for an emergency declaration, proposed the commission turn to the president for said proclamation as well as solicit help from other agencies. She suggested the state Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention get involved by conducting a comprehensive public health assessment because “we are on the brink of collapse.”
Commissioners agreed that at its next meeting it would consider sending Biden a letter requesting he issue an emergency declaration, and a letter to Newsom urging him to do the same. In August, Newsom asked that Biden immediately free up $300 million in previously allocated funding to repair the San Ysidro-based wastewater treatment plant but he stopped short of asking him to declare an emergency.
Chairperson Donnie Brownsey said the commission should also ask that the federal government fully fund the expansion of the outdated wastewater plant, a project, that with repairs included, would cost nearly $1 billion.
The move came after a unique, three-hour visit to the Tijuana River Valley where commissioners, alongside residents and environmental advocates, got a closer look at the pollution and sewage stench. Their tour preceded a five-hour meeting full of imioned testimonies from impacted residents and lifeguards and local doctors who said data they are collecting shows that South County residents are increasingly becoming ill because of the sewage on their beaches and in the air they breathe.
Kimberly and Matthew Dickson, doctors who own and practice at South Bay Urgent Care on Palm Avenue in Imperial Beach, said they are seeing an increase in gastrointestinal illnesses. After tropical storm Hilary in August, when more than 2 billion gallons of wastewater flowed over the border, the urgent care center saw an average of 35 people per week suffering from diarrhea.
“Normally, we’d see five a week,” said Matthew Dixon. “This is a direct correlation of people getting sick.”
The commission also heard from Maria-Elena Giner, a commissioner with the International Boundary and Water Commission, which operates the San Diego wastewater treatment plant. She reminded commissioners that some repairs will take up to a year but that the amount of wastewater flowing from Tijuana will start to reduce gradually. Giner underscored the challenges of expediting construction work with only a $50 million budget the agency has available to cover all of its construction projects along the U.S.-Mexico border. Thus, funding is the biggest challenge.
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who attended the meeting, said she first witnessed the severity of the sewage crisis in 2019 and found it “mind-boggling” that circumstances have only worsened. She demanded that Giner return before commissioners next month with answers to questions she posed, including an explanation for the poor condition of the wastewater plant and the agency’s budget for maintaining the plant.
Similarly, Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and other San Diego County congressional sent a letter to the Department of State demanding a full ing of how the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant fell into a state of disrepair.
The Commission will reconvene next month.
