EPA chief urges Mexico to help deliver ‘100% solution' to clean up polluted Tijuana River
U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday called for Mexico and the U.S. to develop a '100% solution' to stop the flow of raw sewage from Tijuana that has polluted the Tijuana River and left communities near the border coping with foul odors and beaches that are often closed because of high bacteria levels.
'Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this for decades are out of patience,' Zeldin said during a news conference in San Diego. 'They want action and they're right.'
Zeldin visited the river north of the border and met with Mexican government officials as well as local officials in San Diego County. He said the Trump administration is seeking 'max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.'
The Tijuana River has been plagued with untreated sewage and industrial waste from Tijuana for decades. The city's growth has far outpaced the existing sewage treatment plants, and inadequate and broken facilities spew waste into the river, polluting the water and air in Imperial Beach and other communities near the border.
Zeldin met for about 90 minutes on Monday night with Mexican Environment Secretary Alicia Bárcena and other Mexican officials, who he said indicated that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her administration are 'fully committed to doing their part to resolving this issue.'
Bárcena said in a post on social media that it was a 'very productive meeting.'
'We agreed to reinforce our joint actions,' Bárcena said, 'to accelerate the projects to address the sanitation of Rio Tijuana for the well-being of our communities.'
Zeldin said Mexico still needs to provide $88 million that it previously pledged in a 2022 agreement. He said that U.S. and Mexican officials soon plan to draw up a 'specific statement from both countries' outlining actions the Mexican government will take to help address the problems.
'We all need to be on the same page on the 100% solution from the U.S. side that if all of these things on that list get done, this crisis is over,' Zeldin said.
He didn't discuss costs or a timetable, but said the goal should be to 'to get every project done as fast as humanly possible.'
The environmental group American Rivers last week ranked the Tijuana River No. 2 on its annual list of the nation's most endangered rivers, up from No. 9 on the list last year. The group said it elevated the river on the list to bring greater attention to the waterway's chronic pollution problems and the lack of action to clean it up.
Environmental advocates have urged the U.S. government to prioritize fixing and expanding the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant north of the border, which handles sewage from Tijuana and is in disrepair.
Zeldin toured the South Bay plant, where he met with Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and other officials. With him were members of Congress including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano).
Levin said the U.S. government has appropriated $653 million for fixing and expanding the South Bay wastewater plant — an amount that steadily increased after an initial $300 million was committed in 2020.
'We've got to get those shovels in the ground,' Levin said. 'We've got to get the South Bay plant up and running, doubled in capacity, as quickly as possible.'
Zeldin also said he was meeting with Navy SEALs who train in the area and have suffered illnesses because of the polluted water.
In a recent report, the Department of Defense said about 1,100 cases of illness were reported among Navy SEALS and other service members who were exposed to high levels of bacteria when they trained in and around the ocean near the border.
'This has been a problem for decades. It hasn't been corrected. It's only gotten worse,' said Dan'l Steward, a retired Navy captain and former SEAL who lives in Coronado but did not attend Tuesday's events.
Decades ago, Steward got sick after basic underwater SEAL training and had to take antibiotics to recover. Steward said he has heard similar stories from SEALs and candidates who undergo training along the beaches in Coronado.
'It's a national security issue,' Steward said. For Navy personnel in the area, he said, 'it's limiting them in their ability to properly train, and it's endangering their lives for the ones that are going through basic training in particular.'
Others affected, he said, include Marines, Coast Guard service members and Border Patrol agents. Steward said his daughter, while surfing nearby, became sick with an infection from a type of bacteria called MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics.
'The United States has a role to help improve the situation, even though their plants are south of the border,' Steward said. 'We all have a role to play here. And I also feel that's the only way to solve the problem.'
Ramon Chairez, director of environmental advocacy for the Encinitas-based nonprofit group Un Mar de Colores, said he'd like to see various actions taken on the U.S. side of the border, including working to dismantle culverts where polluted water cascades down and sends polluted water vapor and gases into the air.
Chairez said he thought Zeldin's focus on collaboration between Mexico and the U.S. made sense.
'Overall, I think the general tone is pointing more towards holding Mexico accountable, although there's some acknowledgment that it's going to be a collaborative effort on both sides of the border,' Chairez said.
One topic that wasn't discussed but has contributed to the problems, he said, is that many U.S.-based companies have set up factories on the Mexican side of the border.
'I didn't hear a word about maquiladoras and factories and industries on the Mexican side and holding them accountable,' he said. 'There's American and California-based corporations operating all along the border, and especially in Tijuana, and they're polluting the river just as much.'
Matthew Tejada, senior vice president of environmental health for the Natural Resources Defense Fund, said the commitments from U.S. officials sound good, but he also said delivering on those pledges will be more complicated because of cuts in budget and staffing. He noted that Zeldin has said he wants to eliminate 65% of the Environmental Protection Agency's budget.
'It will be an interesting trick for EPA to achieve exactly those sorts of outcomes while they are internally tearing down the very staff and systems they need to actually make those changes happen,' Tejada said.
He said the Trump administration's recent actions, including cutting funding and rolling back environmental protection measures, are 'making it that much harder for this country to actually have clean air, clean land and clean water.'
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