SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Without an end in sight to the pollution and sewage stench in the Tijuana River Valley, long-time resident and advocate Gabriel Uribe has decided to move out of the area.
He recently leased an apartment a few miles north of the Valley to get away from the smell and toxins in the air, which he blames for his son’s respiratory and other health issues.
“Thirteen years old and he is having to deal with all of these issues,” Uribe said. “Because I want to stand my ground and everything, it’s not fair for his health, so I had to make a decision, I had to get up and move out of here.”
Uribe sees his decision to leave the Valley as “losing a battle, but not the war.”
“For right now, I’m going to let go of this battle and look forward to other ways of battling the situation,” he said
Uribe remains critical of lawmakers at local, state and federal levels for not doing enough to curtail the sewage problem over time.
He was also disappointed with last month’s visit from Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, saying he felt Zeldin didn’t really want to help.
“It’s amazing, as soon as he got here, there were no flows, all were stopped, no smell, everything was good, as soon as he got up and left, it was business as usual,” said Uribe. “It’s flowing, it’s smelling bad, now they’re telling us it’s going to get worse before it gets better, how many years have we been hearing the same story, same song, it’s really like a broken record.”
During his visit the area on Earth Day, Zeldin said that Mexico must stop the flow of billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals, adding that he would present Mexico a to-do list of projects to resolve the decades-long environmental crisis. However, he stopped short of specifying how the Trump administration would hold Mexico accountable if it does not act.
While Uribe may not be living in the valley full-time now, he went on to say this is not the end of his advocacy work and drive to help his neighbors and the valley.
“We’re still battling this war against the sewage, it’s far from over.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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