April 16, 2021, Tijuana, Mexico.Raquel Natalichio / ZUMA
This story was originally guardian Reprinted here as part of. climate desk collaboration.
raw sewage A report released this week says the Tijuana River spill is exposing communities along the U.S.-Mexico border to unusual and harmful pathogens and toxic chemicals.
Billions of gallons of sewage flow north from Mexico, through California, and into the Pacific Ocean, carrying carcinogenic chemicals such as arsenic, as well as viruses, bacteria and parasites, according to San Diego public health researchers. It is said to contain a mixture of insects. The state university that released the report.
Researchers call the situation an “imminent public health crisis.”
San Diego County has had beaches closed for more than 700 consecutive days due to wastewater flowing into the ocean, but the pollution isn’t limited to water. Contaminants and pathogens found in sewage have also been detected in local air and soil, putting people living miles away from water at risk.
Communities on both sides of the border have been sounding the alarm about this pollution for decades, complaining about the near-constant odor in the air and calling for improved sewage infrastructure. In recent years, unprecedented storms, exacerbated by the climate crisis, have put additional pressure on destabilizing wastewater systems and increased public health risks.
“This is more than just a little bit of contamination,” said Paula Stigler Granados, an associate professor at San Diego State University’s School of Public Health and lead author of the paper. “This is a lot of contamination over a long period of time.”
For locals in Imperial Beach, a town just north of the Mexican border, the report confirms years of frustration and fear over a spiraling wastewater crisis.
“Unfortunately, Imperial Beach is a symbol of what environmental injustice looks like,” said Mayor Paloma Aguirre.
A surfer and longtime coastal conservation advocate, Aguirre spent nearly two decades advocating for solutions to Imperial Beach pollution before being elected mayor in 2022.
He said the situation is complicated by the fact that the issue crosses borders and requires the U.S. and Mexican governments to work together. In January, Mexico broke ground on a new wastewater treatment plant to replace an aging facility in Punta Bandera, six miles south of the border.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government in 2020 approved a $300 million fund to expand the San Ysidro wastewater treatment facility just north of the border. But a government memo obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune last year revealed the facility was in such disrepair that half of the funding would be needed just to maintain the existing infrastructure.
Since then, Aguirre and other local officials and advocates have called for an additional $310 million in federal funding to improve wastewater treatment capacity, but Joe Biden announced in October has included this in its request for emergency additional funding, but Congress has not yet approved it. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Representative Scott Peters, whose district borders Imperial Beach, also called for urgent action.
“Never in the history of this issue has there been as much attention to this issue as there has been over the last 12 months,” Aguirre said. “Is that enough? No.”
This week’s report was commissioned with the aim of reinforcing officials’ demands for more resources. To produce the report, Granados and his colleagues were asked by Peters and a local charity, the Conrad Prebys Foundation, to provide an overview of the public health and environmental risks posed by urban runoff and sewage in the region. More than 60 studies and reports were reviewed for this purpose. .
The report highlights a range of risks, including the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains. E Escherichia coli and legionella. The report said the flooded water could also carry diseases that have been nearly eradicated in the United States, such as tuberculosis. The sewage is also contaminated with banned pesticides such as DDT and toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, likely derived from industrial waste that enters the river flow from urban areas, the researchers said. These pollutants become airborne as droplets thrown by crashing waves and can spread pathogens and chemicals over large areas of the region.
Sewage also poses significant risks to local ecosystems. Researchers point to a recent case in which a stranded bottlenose dolphin in San Diego was found to have died of sepsis, caused by bacteria commonly transmitted through exposure to feces and urine.
There is much researchers still don’t know about this crisis, including the extent to which long-term exposure to various pollutants, bacteria, and other pathogens is affecting people’s health. But researchers said urgent investment in infrastructure and public health resources is needed.
“Everyone who lives here has been affected by this disease in some way,” Aguirre said. After spending time on the water himself, Aguirre has come down with viral pharyngitis and other illnesses that have resulted in several trips to the emergency room. “This has become a normal thing in our lives. But it’s never normal for everyone.”
