Mexico Border Sewage Overflow: US Environmental Protection Agency Chief Says Unacceptable

The newly appointed head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressed outrage over the sewage issue in the Tijuana River. For decades, sewage from the river has been impacting the border communities of San Diego, causing health hazards and even leading to record-breaking beach closures for over a thousand days until last September.

EPA Chief Lee Zeldin took to the social media platform X on the afternoon of the 8th of this month, stating, “I just received a briefing, learning that Mexico has been releasing a large amount of untreated sewage into the Tijuana River, and now this sewage has infiltrated into U.S. territory. This is unacceptable. Mexico must fulfill its commitments to controlling pollution and sewage!”

Shortly after Zeldin’s post, according to a report from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), a mixture of stormwater and cross-border sewage entered U.S. territory at 1:30 am on the 9th. The USIBWC is a federal agency responsible for enforcing border and water resource treaties.

In a subsequent press release on the 10th, the USIBWC stated that they had engaged in several meetings with Mexican officials, and preliminary information indicated that an unexpected sewage overflow occurred during a sewage pipeline replacement project in Tijuana.

USIBWC Director Maria-Elena Giner stated in a press release, “I have made it very clear to Mexico that it is crucial to do everything possible to prevent future cross-border sewage flows in this complex construction project.”

The department reported that cross-border sewage flow was halted on the 9th.

Tijuana is in the process of replacing its largest sewage conveyance pipeline, which has been leaking in the past, causing sewage flow. This pipeline replacement project is jointly funded by the United States, Mexico, and a Mexican bank, with construction overseen by the Mexican Defense Department.

USIBWC spokesperson Frank Fisher stated in an email to a media outlet that the agency maintains regular contact with its Mexican counterpart. The focus of upcoming meetings will be on the pipeline replacement project and monitoring potential issues.

“We are addressing the cross-border sewage problem from four aspects: repairing the South Bay sewage treatment plant, expanding the plant, overseeing Mexico’s compliance with Article 328, and taking emergency measures to ensure zero cross-border flows during the dry season,” Fisher said.

Article 328 is a bilateral agreement signed by federal agencies of the U.S. and Mexico in July 2022, aimed at reducing sewage pollution in the Tijuana River watershed and the Pacific through a series of infrastructure projects on both sides of the border.

In November of last year, the city of Chula Vista in San Diego County declared a state of emergency due to the sewage crisis in the Tijuana River. Mayor John McCann contacted several leaders in the southern county, who had previously worked with Zeldin, to escalate the Tijuana River sewage crisis to the highest levels of the EPA.

McCann stated in an email, “The ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis is an urgent environmental and public health issue that requires immediate action. Mexico’s responsibility is critical. But we must acknowledge that fully resolving this crisis depends on cooperation between the two countries.”

He emphasized that the most crucial first step to resolving the crisis is to secure at least $630 million in federal funding for infrastructure repair and expansion, and to convince Mexico to take responsibility.

During Zeldin’s EPA chief nomination hearing in the Senate on January 16, newly elected California Senator Adam Schiff questioned Zeldin on whether he would reconsider proposals previously rejected by the EPA leadership.

On January 7, the EPA refused to investigate whether the Tijuana River Valley qualified as a Superfund site. Schiff asked Zeldin if he agreed to review this decision and consider making a different judgment, to which Zeldin responded, “Yes.”

The petition for Superfund site designation was initiated by Terra Lawson-Remer, a San Diego County Supervisor, in October of last year. One of the signatories to the proposal was Paloma Aguirre, the Mayor of Imperial Beach, a city most severely affected by the sewage crisis.

The petition requested the EPA to investigate and assess hazardous substances in the Tijuana River Valley area to determine if it is eligible for inclusion in the EPA’s Superfund program. This program can help channel federal resources into cleaning up hazardous substances in highly polluted areas.

After the nomination hearing on January 22, and Zeldin’s swearing-in as the 17th EPA Administrator on March 3, Mayor Aguirre sent letters to Zeldin, requesting a reassessment of the Tijuana River Valley’s qualification as a Superfund site.

Aguirre also invited Zeldin to personally visit the area and witness the disaster scene.

Efforts were made to contact Adam Schiff, Lawson-Remer, and Aguirre for their comments on Zeldin’s statements, but responses were not received at the time of publication.

The Tijuana River originates in Mexico, spanning 120 miles, mostly in northern Baja California, Mexico, crossing over the border into San Diego about 5 miles downstream from Tijuana, and eventually flowing into the Pacific.

Phillip Musegaas, Executive Director of San Diego Coastkeeper, expressed in an article on their website on May 2 last year that pollution in the Tijuana River has been ongoing for decades. However, in recent years, with rapid population growth in Tijuana and aging water treatment infrastructure, this crisis has become more severe.

According to a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response report conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in October last year and released in January this year, hundreds of billions of gallons of pollutants have entered the Tijuana River over the past five years, sparking significant concerns about water quality and public health in the San Diego area.

In recent years, federal and local leaders in California, along with community advocates and organizations, have been actively working to address the complex issue of cross-border pollution by proposing new legislation, securing federal funding, filing lawsuits, and distributing air purifiers to residents of affected communities.