The mayor of Imperial Beach—the southernmost beach city in California bordering Mexico—is asking President Joe Biden to declare a state of emergency regarding sewage water from Tijuana, Mexico, contaminating water along the city’s beaches and infecting thousands of people.
Mayor Paloma Aguirre wrote the president a letter last week—which has not been made public yet—urging for such, which would provide the city immediate access to funding and coordinated efforts from federal and state departments to address the crisis.
“At the end of the day no one is helping us,” Aguirre said to The Epoch Times.
The sewage crisis at the Southern California border has existed for decades and over that time period has infected an estimated 34,000 people in Southern California, according to Aguirre.
The city has previously sought federal assistance for projects to capture and treat sewage water before it contaminates the city’s beaches. However, Aguirre said the city has not yet received a response.
Sewage spills come from aging treatment facilities in Tijuana, Mexico, which travel north, infecting U.S. beaches.
University of California–San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography published a study in March which found sewage-linked bacteria had become airborne in Imperial Beach, which could affect residents who aren’t even in the water.
“Our lifeguards are demoralized because our beaches are closed every single day. Our YMCA camp surf is struggling with a decrease in their enrollment because you have families traveling and spending money to come to the beach and only to find out that it’s closed,” Aguirre said in an interview.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allotted $300 million for what’s known as the International Sewage Treatment Plan aimed to repair the treatment plant in Tijuana and expand it by adding more facilities to handle larger amounts of sewage water to prevent further contamination.
The plan was approved four years ago, according to Aguirre, and is supposed to begin this year. However, she said she is worried most of the funding will go to repairs on the plant, instead of expanding it.
“My fear is that it will end up being a wash, so then we’re going to have to go through a whole congressional appropriations process again,” meaning the process required to get more funding from Congress, said Aguirre. “Which all of us know moves at a glacial pace and we’re in a crisis.”
The Imperial Beach City Council declared a local emergency on the issue on May 3 after a previous declaration expired.
