Latest news with #ImperialBeach
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
This California beach used to be filled with families. Now it's deluged with Mexican sewage
Imperial Beach, California, is a city with a dirty secret. There's a reason why nobody, beyond a determined bunch of early-morning surfers, ventures beyond its sandy beaches and into the sea. It's the same reason local restaurants source their fish from further up the coast, and residents keep their windows shut at night, even during the sweltering West Coast summers. The city, a short drive south of San Diego, is being polluted by billions of gallons of raw sewage flowing across the Mexican border every year. Its beaches have been forced to close, its air is being contaminated by pollutants hundreds of times above levels deemed safe, and locals are falling violently unwell. The issue is now a source of tension between the US and Mexico, and The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has given a personal commitment to tackle it as the two countries attempt to negotiate a solution. When The Telegraph visited earlier this year, Tom Csanadi, a retired paediatrician, was looking out at the view from his home on the beachfront. To the north he could see the curve of the coastline as it arcs towards San Diego, and directly in front of him the blue of the Pacific Ocean, with an old wooden pier stretching a quarter-mile out to sea. Rising up on a hillside to the south, beyond the border wall, is the Mexican city of Tijuana, which even at a distance of a few miles seems to dwarf Imperial Beach. 'S--- flows downhill,' Dr Csanadi said. 'And we're downhill.' Tijuana is one of Mexico's fastest-growing cities, exploding in size since the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) came into force in the mid-1990s. But its development was too fast for the antiquated and neglected sewage systems on either side of a border, which were overwhelmed by the demands of a population that now numbers more than 2.3 million and is climbing ever higher. Instead, up to 80 million gallons of its waste is flooding into the Pacific Ocean and the cross-border Tijuana River every day. The river used to disappear during the dry months, from around June to September. But these days it is kept flowing by a cocktail of raw sewage and industrial chemicals, bearing viruses, bacteria and parasites into the US. Imperial Beach is bearing the brunt of it, and has become what some locals refer to as 'Mexico's toilet'. Dr Csanadi and his wife, Marvel Harrison, thought they had staked out their own share of paradise when they bought an undeveloped plot on the beachfront 10 years ago. Over time, it became a family home for them and their children – along with a pet chicken roaming outdoors called Daphne – and at the back of their minds, they thought they would be there for the rest of their lives. They don't think that any more. In the years since moving in, Dr Harrison, a psychologist, has developed a condition similar to asthma that has left her with a chronic cough and means she has to use an inhaler. There are some days when she can't walk on the beach because of the strain it puts on her lungs. 'We're a small town with a global problem,' she said, taking sips from a large mug of tea in her kitchen between barely-suppressed coughs. As for Dr Csanadi, he has developed an E coli infection that is resistant to antibiotics and regularly comes down with sinus issues. Accounts of chronic illness are common throughout Imperial Beach, where residents report cases of migraines, respiratory conditions, stomach problems, fatigue, skin infections and nausea. Authorities say hundreds of Navy Seals, training at the base a short distance up the coast, have developed gastrointestinal issues from contact with contaminated ocean water. The dead animals that regularly wash up shows the wildlife isn't immune either. A group of bottlenose dolphins found on a beach one summer were killed by sepsis caused by bacteria transmitted via urine or faeces, researchers at State Diego State University found. Most of Imperial Beach's population stays out of the sea, where access has been restricted for around three years. Warning signs instructing swimmers to stay away are planted in the sand every 20 feet or so. But people are falling ill anyway because the pollution is spreading through the air from the churn of the diseased river and crashing waves of the Pacific. Every night, somewhere between midnight and 2am, the city is enveloped by a strong smell. It can happen during the day as well, albeit less commonly, leaving locals prisoners in their own homes. Nobody can quite agree what the odour is: some compare it to rotten eggs, while others say it has a bitter chemical tang. To TJ Jackson, who lives along the beachfront, it simply 'smells like Tijuana'. The stench is the result of hydrogen sulphide emanating from the Tijuana River, according to Benjamin Rico, a PhD student studying the pollution at the University of California San Diego. Typically, hydrogen sulphide levels are below one part per billion (ppb), and California has set a safe limit for children and pregnant women at 7.3ppb. But Mr Rico shared research with The Telegraph showing hydrogen sulphide levels taken from one neighbourhood in Imperial Beach reached up to 4,500ppb. And it is just one of potentially thousands of pollutants being given off by the river, and spread over the rest of the county. At one pollution hotspot on Saturn Boulevard identified by Mr Rico, the sulphur smell is overpowering. Water pours out of a concrete pipe into an estuary, churning untreated sewage, chemicals and metals. Many of the nearby trees, their branches dipping low towards the water, are withered and black. The area was deserted, with the exception of a young boy who cycled past with a T-shirt clamped over his mouth and nose. Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of Imperial Beach, hit out at the response from Gavin Newsom, the California governor. 'He has not done enough,' she said. 'And it borderlines on gross negligence that he is actively refusing to help us, despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that we are really being harmed here. 'He hasn't done more than send a letter to [former US president Joe] Biden asking for more funding.' A spokeswoman for Mr Newsom said Ms Aguirre's frustration was 'misdirected' because sewage infrastructure was 'under federal and international jurisdiction'. She said the California governor had been a 'strong advocate' for Imperial Beach, and last year 'secured critical funding and support to address cross-border pollution from the Tijuana River while holding authorities accountable to expedited timelines'. 'We call on the Trump Administration to continue to fund repairs and complete infrastructure to protect public health and safety and end this environmental crisis once and for all,' she added. So far, locals are quietly optimistic about Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who visited Imperial Beach in April and declared the sewage crisis was 'top of mind' for Mr Trump. Mr Trump's administration submitted its plan to Mexico earlier this month, and the two governments are in the midst of thrashing out a deal that is expected to be concluded within weeks to upgrade sewage treatment facilities. 'We're literally going line by line on past agreements, and pressure testing everything to see what can be completed faster,' a US government source said. 'If it says five years, could it be done in two years? Could it be done in 100 days?' To date, Mexico is said not to have rejected any of Washington's proposals, and negotiations have been spurred along by both Mr Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, who are 'committed to solving this problem'. But the move comes too late for some Imperial Beach residents who have packed up and moved away, worn down by what they feel is years' worth of neglect from the government. Among their number is Serge Dedina, Ms Aguirre's predecessor as mayor, who suffered sinus, ear and stomach infections and whose son required urgent care when he fell violently ill after swimming in the sewage-infested waters. Ms Aguirre, however, plans to stick around and see what happens next to Imperial Beach. 'I can't leave – I'm the mayor,' she said. 'I go down with the ship. That's my responsibility.' The Mexican government has been approached for comment.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
In California, There's One Import That Nobody Wants
White sand stretches for miles where Pacific Ocean waves crash into the shore. Nearby, bicycles lean against seaside cottages that are accented by banana and palm trees out front. A rickety wooden pier offers spectacular views of sherbet-hued sunsets over the water. To the eye, Imperial Beach, Calif., is an idyllic beach town, a playground for tourists and Southern California residents alike at the southern border with Mexico. But lately, the view has been ruined by the sea breeze, which reeks of rotten eggs. The surfers who once prepared for big-wave competitions are gone. So are the tourists who built intricate sand castles and licked ice cream cones on the pier. Imperial Beach is now the center of one of the nation's worst environmental disasters: Every day, 50 million gallons of untreated sewage, industrial chemicals and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County. The cross-national problem traces back at least a century. But it has significantly worsened in recent years as the population of Tijuana has exploded and sewage treatment plants in both countries have fallen into disrepair. 'It's a public health ticking time bomb that isn't being taken seriously,' said Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of Imperial Beach. 'We need help.' Imperial Beach's shoreline, which has drawn tourists for more than a century, has been closed for more than 1,200 days in a row because of health concerns. A growing body of research suggests that even breathing the air may be harmful, as toxic particles in the water can become airborne. There are no overnight solutions, and officials on both sides of the border say that it will take yearslong expansions of sewage treatment plants to stop the pollution. In the meantime, Ms. Aguirre permanently sealed shut the windows of her home to keep out the noxious stench. More than 1,100 Navy recruits have contracted gastrointestinal illnesses after training in southern San Diego waters, the Office of the Naval Inspector General determined. And nearly half of the region's 40,900 households have experienced health problems, including migraine headaches, rashes and shortness of breath, that were most likely attributable to the sewage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Things have grown so desperate that when Lee Zeldin, President Trump's new environmental secretary and a former Republican congressman, arrived last month, even local Democrats cheered. On Earth Day, Mr. Zeldin came to Imperial Beach and vowed to urgently fix the sewage problem, which he said was 'top of mind' for Mr. Trump. 'We are all out of patience,' Mr. Zeldin said. The crisis has upended life in southern San Diego County — what locals call South County — which has an unusual mix of touristy beach towns and industrial warehouses. The region is defined by its border with Mexico, where Spanish and English flow interchangeably and the densely populated hillsides of Tijuana loom in the distance. But South County residents have felt powerless when it comes to the complex international dynamics that have allowed so much sewage to overwhelm their neighborhoods. 'We want to be able to survive,' said Jesse Ramirez, 60, who has owned a skate and surf shop on Imperial Beach's main drag for three decades. On a recent morning during what would typically be the start of tourist season, his store was entirely empty. Imperial Beach, known to locals as I.B., was never as glamorous as the wealthy beach spots farther north. It takes its name from Imperial County, an inland region from which farmers once arrived each summer to escape the sweltering heat. The city has long been a working-class community, and its nearly four miles of coastline have functioned as a town square at the southwestern corner of the continental United States. Not long ago, surfers rode the world-renowned swells at Tijuana Sloughs, the city's southernmost beach. Locals walked their dogs on the warm sand and enjoyed the sea breeze and pints of beer on outdoor patios. But so-called extreme odor events happen more nights than not. Tests have found a disturbing slew of contaminants in the water, including arsenic, heavy metals, hepatitis, E. coli, salmonella, banned pesticides such as DDT, and more. 'We have watched in horror as the amounts of sewage have catastrophically increased,' said Serge Dedina, a surfer and environmentalist who served as mayor of Imperial Beach from 2014 to 2022. 'It's become kind of like a collective mental health crisis.' In the 1990s, in an act of binational cooperation, the United States built a plant on its side of the border to help treat sewage from Tijuana, which often flowed into San Diego beaches via northward currents from Mexico. At the same time, Mexico established a plant in Tijuana as well. But those plants haven't kept up with explosive population growth in Tijuana, one of Mexico's fastest-growing cities. Roughly 2.3 million people now live in the city, spurred in part by American companies that built factories there for cheap labor. Aging infrastructure and damage from turbulent rains have further reduced how much sewage the plants can treat. The sewage problem now stretches up to Coronado, a wealthy enclave known for the historic Hotel del Coronado, where rooms regularly go for $1,000 a night and a $550 million renovation just finished after six years. Beaches have been forced to close there as well, so fewer tourists are booking lodging, said John Duncan, the city's mayor. 'My biggest concern as mayor is that the reputation as 'the toilet of Mexico' starts to stick at some point and really hurts us,' Mr. Duncan said. In addition to the sewage that goes directly into the ocean, another 10 million gallons each day flow into the 120-mile Tijuana River, which begins in Mexico and winds northward into the United States before emptying at Imperial Beach, according to the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages the U.S. treatment plant and is overseen by the State Department. The river waste comes from factories, as well as from shantytowns in Tijuana that aren't hooked up to the city's sewer system. The river provides habitat for 370 species of birds along the Pacific Flyway, an important migratory pathway. But in recent years, it has essentially become an open sewer running through southern San Diego neighborhoods and near schools, researchers say. On a recent day, the water in the Tijuana River appeared fluorescent green and was spotted with foam, what scientists say is the product of industrial chemicals. Beneath lanky willows, discarded tires clogged the waterway. Crushed milk jugs and scraps of clothing piled up on the river's muddy banks. The sulfur stench was pungent, even through a respirator mask. Along the river, scientists have detected astronomically high levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air, which can cause headaches, fatigue, skin infections, anxiety and respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. Residents have complained about such symptoms for years, said Paula Stigler Granados, a public health researcher at San Diego State University. 'I consider this to be the largest environmental justice issue in the whole country,' Ms. Granados said. 'I don't know any other place where millions of gallons of raw sewage would be allowed to flow through a community.' The U.S. boundary commission has secured $600 million to double its treatment capacity to 50 million gallons per day, according to Frank Fisher, a spokesman. The Mexican plant is also working on repairs and expanding capacity, he said. Many worry that the changes will take too long: The expansion at the American plant alone will take five years. Some short-term ideas that have been floated include trying to treat the river water before it reaches neighborhoods and giving air purifiers to residents. Mr. Zeldin said when he visited San Diego in April that he was compiling a list of projects that would solve the crisis sooner. He suggested building a funnel at the Mexican treatment plant that would send sewage farther from the shore. Mr. Dedina, the former Imperial Beach mayor, moved there when he was 7 and grew up surfing and lifeguarding. But he surfed those waters for the last time in 2019, he said, heading back to shore despite perfect, 10-foot waves. The water that day was simply too foul. 'I just said: 'I can't do this anymore. I can't go in the water,'' he recalled. 'It's like Russian roulette.' In 2022, Mr. Dedina moved Wildcoast, the environmental nonprofit he runs, out of Imperial Beach because his employees began complaining of toxic fumes. Then, last year, he and his wife moved to central San Diego, away from the stench. The health risks in his hometown had become too much. 'I miss the life that I had,' he said. 'Grabbing my surfboard, going in the water. It's gone and it's tragic.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Undocumented migrants detained after fleeing from boat that landed in La Jolla
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Border Patrol agents apprehended 9 people suspected of being in the United States without documents after a boat washed ashore a San Diego beach and people were seen running from it early Sunday morning. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sea Otter crew reported seeing a 24-foot cuddy cabin-style boat near Windansea Beach in La Jolla around 5 a.m. Sunday that washed ashore and observed multiple people leave the boat and run towards the intersection of Coast Boulevard and Prospect Street. Coast Guard stops illegally chartered 'pleasure craft' in San Diego U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Imperial Beach Station responded and apprehended a total of nine undocumented people. All 9 people were transported to a nearby Border Patrol station and will be processed for removal from the United States. The boat was seized by U.S. Border Patrol. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
