SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The storm that hit the San Diego-Tijuana region on Monday sent more than 14.5 billion gallons of untreated raw sewage into California from Mexico, according to figures released by the International Boundary and Water Commission.
On Tuesday, as the storm moved out of the area, the amount of sewage entering the U.S. dropped to 845 million gallons.
The agency said it has not seen this type of pollution in the area in 30 years.
Most of the effluent flows through the Tijuana River Valley along the river, which originates in Mexico, but a lot of the untreated sewage also enters the U.S. via canyons and ravines that feed the river north of the border.
“It’s unacceptable,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre. “It’s 14.5 billion gallons of basically raw sewage flowing through our communities in one day.”
Most of the raw sewage will end up in Aguirre’s city and beaches, something that’s been happening for decades.
“We hear shock and awe when there’s a two million gallon sewage spill in L.A. or Santa Barbara,” she said. “And here we are with 14 billion gallons of sewage impacting over 750-thousand residents in south San Diego County and there’s no action.”
Aguirre said there’s no other place in the country with the level of pollution like the Tijuana River Valley.
“We are seeing animals that are being found in our beaches dead from sepsis caused by specific types of bacteria that are traced back to sewage-contaminated water, and now it’s even more concerning that researchers are finding antibiotic-resisting genes in the types of bacteria they are finding here in the water.”
Aguirre and other lawmakers from San Diego are traveling to Washington D.C., on Sunday, where they plan on lobbying for more funding to mitigate the sewage coming in from Mexico, impacting the Tijuana River Valley.
“I don’t know how else to sound the alarm that this is a public health ticking time bomb,” she said.
On Wednesday, Aguirre published an opinion piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune calling on President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency in the Tijuana River Valley and to do more to fix the problem.
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