SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The city of San Diego recently placed boulders along a portion of the Tijuana River Valley, where the river goes under Saturn Boulevard, to keep the water from splashing and releasing toxins, gases and the smell into the air.
According to Gabriel Uribe, whose ranch is just south of the river, the effort is falling short.
“The splash is even worse,” Uribe said. “They had an entire crew here for three to four days putting in the boulders, they graded the area, cleaned it up, all they did was put in a few boulders and they made it worse.”
Uribe says data on his phone, captured daily by a monitor installed on his ranch by researchers studying the pollution in the valley, show things have not gotten better.
“I can show you the numbers on my phone, it’s the same if not worse!”
Images of boulders placed under Saturn Boulevard where the Tijuana River goes under the roadway, the rocks were placed there to keep splashing to a minimum as a way to reduce gases, toxins and smell from being released into the air. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)
A few months ago, scientists working for San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego, detected high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and inconclusive readings of hydrogen cyanide.
They agreed the boulders, while not the solution, would reduce the toxins in the air.
Uribe tells Border Report it’s all been a waste of time and money.
“I feel sorry for the employees that had to come in and do all this and endure this smell because I’m sure they went home with a headache,” he said. “I did see they were wearing respirators, that was kind of the city to provide them with that, but most of us don’t have respirators — this is not helping us. I appreciate them trying to do something. I guess any help is good help.”
What Uribe doesn’t appreciate is outsiders who suggest residents like him are embellishing the problem and should move out of the area.
“This is where I’m from, why I should leave? Why can’t we as the greatest nation in the world not come in and take care of this little corner? We have engineers, scientists that tell us we can fix this; I invite anybody that’s not from around this neighborhood to come here to experience what we’re experiencing.”
Border Report reached out to the city of San Diego about the amount of investment in the boulders and the decision to put them in, but it has not provided any details or figures.
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