SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The first rainstorm of the season dropped only half an inch of rain on the San Diego-Tijuana region late last week. But it was the first big test for a 1,000-foot-long boom designed to keep south-of-the-border trash from flowing into the U.S. and out to the Pacific Ocean.
Designers were expecting the boom to block 20 tons of trash, but it stopped a whopping 50 tons.
“It worked exactly the way we wanted,” said Oscar Romo, executive director with Alter Terra, an environmental binational agency that helped design and install the boom.
All the debris originated in Mexico, and all of it would’ve ended up strewn along the Tijuana River Valley and the Pacific Ocean.
“If this is the product of half an inch or rain, when we have an inch the entire Valley will be covered with trash — We stopped a lot of contamination that is plastics, oils and all kinds of paint and solvents, this is not going to reach the ocean, which is of great value, now we can show residents of this area that we can recover this Valley.”
For decades, trash from south of the border along with millions of gallons of raw sewage, has flown into the U.S. — especially during big storms — contaminating and polluting the Tijuana River Valley and the coast.
Romo expects the boom to be part of the solution keeping trash and pollution out of the area.
Most of the materials that flow in are plastics that cannot be recycled.
“It has to go to the landfill due to the contamination,” he said. “We’re not allowed to recycle it and do something with it. Unfortunately, I do not have the permit to do it.”
According to Romo, crews will begin cleaning up the plastics, trash and other debris as the ground begins to dry up.
“We’re also going to separate it, we want to see and determine what the composition is and gauge what is coming in.”
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