{"id":267906,"date":"2026-04-14T21:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:03:12","slug":"sewage-disaster-embroils-san-diego-beach-enclave-as-locals-evacuate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267906\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewage disaster embroils San Diego beach enclave as locals evacuate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toxic gas from a disgusting sewage disaster in San Diego\u2019s South Bay is forcing some residents out of their homes.<\/p>\n

New data from UC San Diego\u2019s Airborne Institute shows hydrogen sulfide levels reaching 150 times the state\u2019s safety standard of 30 parts per billion.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, levels topped 2,000 parts per billion\u2014higher than what\u2019s typically seen at wastewater treatment plants, according to ABC10.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese levels are levels that workers in wastewater treatment plants put on all their PPE and walk around, right? The community doesn\u2019t have that,\u201d said UC San Diego professor Dr. Kimberly Prather.<\/p>\n

The spike mirrors conditions last seen in September 2024 and signals a new phase in the region\u2019s long-running sewage crisis.<\/p>\n

For Imperial Beach resident Sonia Mayorga, it\u2019s already unbearable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a beautiful home, with my family over there, we can\u2019t go back because it\u2019s so toxic,\u201d Mayorga told ABC. \u201cI literally wanna cry. I wanna go back and I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayorga said she and her husband suffer headaches, nausea, and throat irritation at home, but improve when they leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bodies can\u2019t handle it, so we have to be out,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cWe can\u2019t go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials say the crisis is reaching a breaking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a milestone nobody wants,\u201d said San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre. \u201cWe\u2019re entering a new era of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent data also shows hydrogen sulfide levels stayed above the state limit overnight on April 5\u2014the first time that\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had so many people in the community essentially begging for help. It\u2019s really, really, a very sad and troubling situation that has to end,\u201d Prather said.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Prather noted that hydrogen sulfide is just one of the thousands of different harmful gases they have detected, per the outlet.<\/p>\n

She has urged Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2013in an open letter<\/a> on Facebook\u2013to declare a state of emergency, calling it \u201can air quality crisis with no parallel anywhere else in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aguirre said candidates, including Tom Steyer, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, and Betty Yee, have pledged to act if elected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toxic gas from a disgusting sewage disaster in San Diego\u2019s South Bay is forcing some residents out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20769,1785,7,179,756,4182,74,76,75,48203,3586],"class_list":["post-267906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-air","tag-beaches","tag-california","tag-community","tag-gas","tag-metro","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-toxic","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}