Three years of closed beaches. One fragile ecosystem. Can we fix the Tijuana River crisis?<\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. \u2014 It may look like a forgotten junkyard\u2014but it\u2019s actually one of San Diego\u2019s most fragile ecosystems.<\/p>\n
Piles of tires, trash, and raw sewage are choking the Tijuana River Valley, and the pollution, largely from across the border, has plagued the area for decades.<\/p>\n
\nExperts Call for Urgent Action <\/p>\n
The tour, made up of environmental leaders, scientists, and agency officials, stopped at key sites like Smuggler\u2019s Gulch and Goat Canyon, locations where cross-border sewage, stormwater runoff, and debris enter the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an amazing natural resource that we all have a shared interest and a shared passion to protect and restore,\u201d said Phillip Musegaas, Executive Director of San Diego Coastkeeper.<\/p>\n
Musegaas says the root of the crisis is overwhelmed sewage infrastructure in Tijuana. Every day, an estimated 25 million gallons of untreated sewage flows from Mexico into the Pacific Ocean, and currents push it straight toward San Diego\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve seen three years of beach closures in Imperial Beach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beyond water quality, the pollution also affects air quality. Communities in South County are regularly exposed to noxious sewer gases, especially at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to take quick action to reduce the sewer levels, to reduce the pollution levels, to clean up the air, and to reduce that harm it\u2019s doing to communities every day,\u201d Musegaas said.<\/p>\n
\nSigns of Progress<\/p>\n
There\u2019s hope on the horizon. At the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, new capacity is being added to treat an additional 10 million gallons per day, starting as soon as September.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s significant,\u201d Musegaas said. \u201cWe have the funding now to fix this infrastructure once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, at Goat Canyon, a sediment basin and floating trash net system is showing results, capturing up to 50 tons of trash and 5,000 tires annually before the flow reaches the protected Tijuana Estuary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what diverts the flows of this drainage into the sediment basins,\u201d said Chris Peregrin with California State Parks, pointing to the trash net system. \u201cIt helps prevent solid waste from entering sensitive habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBinational Solutions Still Needed\n <\/p>\n
At Smuggler\u2019s Gulch, experts pointed out another challenge\u2014runoff from ongoing highway construction in Mexico. Without proper stormwater controls, sediment, sewage, and industrial debris continue to spill into the U.S. during heavy rains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat affects the communities that live here. That affects the ocean ecology,\u201d Musegaas said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s something that could be fixed if Mexico just did simple stormwater controls.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA Coalition Pushing for Change\n <\/p>\n
The tour was organized by a coalition of 11 organizations, all working to restore the Tijuana River Valley and hold governments accountable on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finally have the momentum,\u201d Musegaas said. \u201cNow we need to make sure it gets done\u2014and gets done quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years of closed beaches. One fragile ecosystem. Can we fix the Tijuana River crisis? SAN DIEGO COUNTY,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-88283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}