4 days ago
California city named world's most relaxing...but it's beaches are strewn with SEWAGE from nearby southern border
San Diego has been named the world's most relaxing city - but the tranquility of its golden beaches are under threat from sewage seeping in from the southern border.
The California city was ranked first as the 'top city to unwind' based on metrics including spa access, air quality, sunshine hours, happiness and natural spaces.
International eSIM provider Holafly gave the coastal metropolis a 'relaxation score' of 68.7 out of 100, followed by Singapore with 66.8 and Vienna, Austria with 63.5.
This owed in large part to San Diego having 'the sunniest climate' among the cities listed, with an average of eight hours and nine minutes of bright sunlight per day.
The picturesque city's balmy climate draws flocks of residents and tourists to South Mission and Central Beach each year - but the tides have turned in recent months.
Analysis of the beaches on both sides of the southern border over the past two years have detected alarming levels of fecal matter in the water stretching 50 miles north of the US-Mexico coastal border, scientists have warned.
One Coast Project and Permanent Forum of Binational Waters researchers have said fecal bacteria in the sea exceeded health standards almost every day of the year.
The groups have collected water samples since 1999 along 65 miles of western coastline from Carlsbad, California, to Baja California in Mexico.
Extremely high levels of enterococci bacteria, which can cause serious infections, were detected in Southern California beaches over the spring in particular.
Researchers said they found an average of 15,000 units of the bacterium pre 100 milliliters of water, which is almost 100 times the legal limit in the US and Mexico.
Enterococci comes from fecal contamination, and it can cause gnarly gastrointestinal, skin, urinary tract and even heart infections.
The bacteria type has been found much more frequently in San Diego waters since 2020, after a sharp rise in the contamination on the Mexican side in 2018.
Director of One Coast Project Rosario Sanchez told Fox News there are very different testing protocols on each side of the border.
'In the U.S. side, there's more standardized procedures in terms of how often testing is done, basically daily, but on the Mexico side it can be just once a month if that,' she said.
Sanchez said that coastal water quality is way off meeting basic health standards for more than 325 days per year across the coastline.
'This has impacts on both sides on both sides of the border, we're not talking just water quality, but we're talking about health,' she said.
The contamination in San Diego is also compounded by toxic sewage spills from the Tijuana River Valley on the south side of the border city.
Californians living in the Imperial Beach area have complained about respiratory problems and other complications that they believe are linked to the waste in the river.
According to the San Diego Coastkeeper, the 'failing sewage infrastructure in Mexico' and 'negligent operation of the South Bay Plant by the US government' are to blame for the pollution and smell.
On the US side, crews have placed riprap - large rocks - in the river in an attempt to stop the foul smell of sewage from plaguing the valley.
In Mexico, environment groups are working to replace a section of an ageing sewage pipeline with a newer one made of concrete.
However, the only way to rebuild the pipeline with minimal pollution was to allow sewage waste to run through the river during the construction.
The International Boundary and Water Commission, a federal government agency monitoring the waterways between Mexico and the US, announced on April 9 that the team in Mexico would be working around the clock to fix the pipeline.
The US side of the IBWC said Mexico had informed them that the decision to dump five million gallons of wastewater a day into the river was a 'difficult decision,' but there were no other alternatives to fixing the sewage problem.
The IBWC said that even though the sewage dump was 'bad news,' the decision was the best way to prevent wastewater from polluting the Tijuana River long-term.
