Residents, officials call for faster action on Tijuana-San Diego sewage problem

SAN DIEGO — Chula Vista resident and Imperial Beach lifeguard Lillian Burkhart still remembers the sting on her skin after surfing in Imperial Beach waters one day last summer. Within 24 hours, she fell ill with a gastrointestinal infection, she said.

“As the day went on after I left the water, I could really smell it. It was pungent. It smelled like sewage,” she said. “The next day I woke up feeling awful and I just threw up for 12 hours straight. I’ve never been that sick in my entire life.”

Burkhart’s experience is commonplace and a reminder of the decadeslong struggle to address the recurring sewage spills from Tijuana that pollute the shoreline of San Diego County’s South Bay region.

Environmental Protection Agency officials said last week they have started an environmental review process for 10 infrastructure projects intended to address the problem. They also approved a pilot project for a rapid test that will measure bacteria levels in the water.

The agency is asking the public to submit comments on the projects by May 20, said Julia Giarmoleo, press officer for the agency’s Region 9.

“This is a critical step in the overall process to implement specific projects to address these long-standing serious problems and we want you to know we are trying to move this process forward as quickly as possible,” said Dave Smith, water division manager for Region 9, during an April 20 public scoping meeting on the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The meeting did not address issues and concerns about the transboundary wastewater issue.

The agency plans to use the $300 million allocated under the 2019 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement for the 10 projects, which includes building a water-diversion system north of the border.

The EPA also announced last week that it had approved a pilot bacteria rapid test to evaluate bacteria in San Diego County beach water, which was developed by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project and the state Department of Public Health. By using the digital test, county beach managers will be able to provide same-day notices of beach water quality, officials said.

Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, who has been critical of the federal government and its handling of the pollution, said the pilot project would be “game-changer” in the city’s ability to open or close its beaches faster. In 2020, the shoreline was closed for nearly 300 days as sewage poured into the Pacific Ocean.

Others said they wished the EPA would move with more of a sense of urgency.

“[President Joe] Biden is hitting his 100-day mark in office and I personally haven’t really heard a lot about this. The EPA seems to be moving forward but I would like to see it move a lot quicker,” said Imperial Beach resident Shannon Johnson, a member of the environmental nonprofit Surfrider Foundation, which has tracked water bacteria levels to provide the public with water quality information.

She and other residents also formed in 2017 the South Bay Clean Water Movement. The group has launched campaigns to raise awareness about the sewage spill, collecting thousands of community letters urging state and federal elected officials for action.

“The EPA under the Trump administration made a lot of progress over the past four years and I fully expect the Biden administration will build off that progress and take it to the finish line. This is a nonpartisan issue with plenty of broad support so I am confident it’ll get it done,” said Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey.

There is hope that help is on the way but local elected officials have said the concern is that no federal agency is taking an official leadership role.

“That’s our No. 1 issue,” said San Diego Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, whose District 8 includes San Ysidro and the Tijuana River Valley, who highlighted efforts from Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla to do just that.

In March, the senators introduced the Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act that would designate the EPA as the lead agency and require it to coordinate all federal, state and local agencies to build and maintain infrastructure.

“The people of Southern California have been forced to suffer while different federal agencies keep passing the buck. This bill will put an end to the confusion by putting the EPA in charge of coordinating efforts and fixing the problem,” Feinstein said in a prepared statement.

EPA officials said the public can submit written comments on the matter by emailing the Tijuana Transbounday’s email box: Tijuana-TransboundaryEISepa.gov.