Latest news with #JohnDuncan
Newsweek
27-05-2025
- Newsweek
California Mayor Issues Warning Over Mexican Sewage Flooding Beaches
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Millions of gallons of sewage, contaminated water and trash flood into California from Mexico every day, and beaches in Coronado, San Diego County, closed over the weekend because of it. The city's mayor has said it risks becoming seen as the "toilet of Mexico," which could lead to a decrease in tourism. Why It Matters The Tijuana River, which crosses from Mexico into California before emptying into the Pacific Ocean, carries not only water but also millions of gallons of untreated sewage. The decades-old problem has sparked both health and environmental concerns. A stock image of a girl at a beach in Coronado, California, on October 4, 2023. A stock image of a girl at a beach in Coronado, California, on October 4, To Know Swimming was prohibited along the Coronado shoreline over Memorial Day weekend as San Diego County extended water contact closures due to ongoing sewage contamination, NBC San Diego reported on Sunday. The closures—which were already in effect for the Tijuana Slough shoreline, Imperial Beach and the Silver Strand—were expanded on Saturday to include Coronado's southwestern-facing beaches, the outlet said. Mayor John Duncan told The New York Times that fewer tourists were booking lodges in the resort city as a result of the forced beach closures. "My biggest concern as mayor is that the reputation as 'the toilet of Mexico' starts to stick at some point and really hurts us," he said. In recent years, San Diego County beaches have faced about 1,000 days of closures due to contamination. Local residents have reported falling ill, and military personnel stationed in the area have also been affected. A report from the Department of Defense's Office of Inspector General recorded 1,100 illness cases among Navy SEALs and other service members exposed to the polluted waters. What People Are Saying James Cooper, a professor at California Western School of Law, previously told Newsweek: "Beaches, north of where the Tijuana River meets the Pacific along the coast from Imperial Beach to Coronado, are closed more often than they are open. The bacterial dangers are immense for those brave enough to get into the Pacific. Surfers who hit the waves, U.S. Navy Seals who train in the area, ranchers whose animals drink water from the watershed, sea mammals who live in the Pacific are all negatively impacted by this ongoing environmental disaster." What Happens Next Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on May 20 that the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission was fast-tracking an expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant—which treats sewage and wastewater flow from Tijuana—by 10 million gallons per day in an effort to mitigate the crisis. Zeldin previously said that at a meeting on April 21, Mexican Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena conveyed President Claudia Sheinbaum's commitment to building a strong partnership with the U.S. to resolve the issue. "Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this for decades are out of patience," Zeldin said at a news conference, as reported by The Epoch Times. "There's a very limited opportunity. What's being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation."
Axios
01-05-2025
- Axios
Charlotte history lives on at Leluia Hall
A new restaurant is situated within one of Dilworth's oldest structures, adjacent to one of Charlotte's most developed neighborhoods. Why it matters: Leluia Hall, one of the city's most anticipated restaurants, is located inside a 1914 building that has housed another popular restaurant, a plant nursery-slash-Christmas store before that, and, originally, a church. Driving the news: Leluia Hall opens the week of May 6, following several years of remodeling, renovations, and preservation of the historic building. Before it was Leluia Hall, it housed Bonterra for 24 years, which moved to SouthPark but closed less than a year later. "We hope the South End area will do what it's supposed to this area will be like a little Buckhead one day," Bonterra's owner, John Duncan, who is from Atlanta, told the Charlotte Business Journal ahead of the restaurant's opening in 1999. The big picture: Although Charlotte has a rich history dating back to 1768, it's often criticized for tearing down its historic buildings in exchange for the shiny and new developments that have sprung up exponentially over the last couple of decades. South End and Dilworth aren't quite like Buckhead, dubbed the " Beverly Hills of Atlanta," but Duncan's prediction wasn't far off. Zoom in: During the renovation process, Leluia Hall's owners and local restaurateurs, Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel, began excavating pieces of Charlotte's history. Construction workers found Hardee's coupons that expired in 1989, a vintage Mountain Dew bottle and snack wrappers in a wall that was demolished. They even found a Styrofoam cup from Price's Chicken Coop hidden in the walls. They also unearthed the original checkered flooring from Marion Redd's Greenway Gardens and Nursery and the Redd Sled Christmas shop, which closed in March 1998. "We got a glimpse of that today as the half wall separating the bar from the main dining area was removed," the couple wrote on Instagram. Flashback: Dilworth Methodist Church congregation originally built the church at 1829 Cleveland Ave. in 1914. They outgrew it and moved to East Boulevard years later, where they remain to this day. The First Church of Nazareth occupied the site from 1925 to 1973, followed by the Greater Providence Baptist Church from 1973 to 1987, The Charlotte Observer reported. "I think the few of us who remember the church (as it was) are glad that they didn't tear it down," Mary Hobbs, a Methodist church member, told the Observer in 1990. There were only three things left from the original building, other than the building itself, Brown tells Axios. Two original skyscraper lights (pictured above) now hang in Leluia Hall's bar area, and a curved prayer rail. "That curved rail was on the mezzanine for a long while, but we donated it to Dilworth Methodist Church (the original congregation)," Brown said. Between the lines: Brown and Tonidandel are no strangers to transforming former churches into hot restaurants. One of their most popular restaurants, Supperland, sits inside a historic Plaza Midwood church. The couple has a passion for preserving Charlotte's history, even delaying the opening of Leluia Hall in order to save a 1903 building in the South End area that would have been demolished to make way for a high-rise. What's next: The Leeper-Wyatt building, once a grocery store for more than 50 years, now sits on the lot next to Leluia Hall. The couple petitioned the city and moved it in order to preserve it. When asked if they had a plan yet for the Leeper-Wyatt building, Brown said, "We do and we don't." But the property is already being worked on.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mexico's wastewater plant repair slows sewage pollution in San Diego
CORONADO, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Mexico's Punta Bandera Wastewater Treatment Plant has been repaired and is back up and running at full capacity, helping to stop some of the sewage from entering the Pacific Ocean in southern San Diego County, and the South Bay community is starting to return to the beaches after the polluted water signs have begun coming down. The Punta Bandera Wastewater Treatment Plant — known as the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant — is located six miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. EPA administrator tours Tijuana River Valley, address sewage crisis Coronado Mayor John Duncan has confirmed the wastewater plant has been repaired after the Mexican government, in coordination with the International Boundary and Water Commission, took over the reconstruction of the dilapidated plant that has been contributing to the pollution at southern San Diego beaches from Imperial Beach to the Hotel del Coronado for years. The Mexican military completed the rebuild project in about a year. It was initially slated to be finished in the fall of 2024, but was finalized in April 2025, according to Duncan. 'Historic day' as ground is broken on sewage treatment facility south of the border Unless it breaks down again, the plant at Punta Bandera will remove 18 million gallons of raw sewage from entering the Pacific Ocean everyday, but that is only a fraction of what's been flowing across the border daily for years. Now, with 18 million gallons being treated across the border in Mexico, and 25 million being treated on the United States side, things appear to be changing. The pollution signs in Coronado were removed Tuesday, and people were swimming and surfing in the Pacific Ocean in an area that has been closed on and off for several years. Free air purifiers available for South Bay residents: Here's how to apply Tijuana River the second most endangered river in US in 2025 County launches new interactive map of Tijuana River sewage impacts Before San Diegans head to the beach anywhere in the county, they can check the water quality at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
