Supervisor Desmond sends letter to State, Defense departments on sewage crisis

FILE Raw sewage flows along the Tijuana River located between the primary and secondary borders next to Tijuana in San Diego Mike Bake REUTERS San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond sent letters Wednesday to U S Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding intervention in the Tijuana River Valley sewage problem The announcement came one day after U S Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited with San Diego leaders about the ongoing issues For decades the Mexican establishment has dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage and toxic waste into Southern California harming our beaches sickening our Navy SEALs and threatening our national protection Desmond reported in his letters Enough is enough Desmond s letters to the Departments of Defense and State urged Hegseth and Rubio to visit the perimeter themselves to see the extent of the matter American taxpayers should not be on the hook for a mess Mexico continues to cause Desmond announced Our military readiness is being compromised Beaches are closed Residents are getting sick And Mexico faces no consequence That must change Zeldin s trip to the region included a Monday night meeting with Alicia B rcena secretary of the Milieu and Natural Tools of Mexico and other Mexican executives for what he explained was a discussion about ending decades of raw sewage entering the U S from Mexico It was clear in the way that the Mexican environmental secretary approached every aspect of this meeting the last day that she wants to have a strong collaborative relationship Zeldin announced I welcome that collaboration He explained he hopes a joint report will be issued in the coming weeks about what Mexican agents plan to do to help resolve the situation Local leaders meanwhile plan to compile a comprehensive list of projects needed to end the flow of defilement Zeldin also visited the South Bay International Wastewater Restoration Plant This visit for EPA is very essential for us to make sure that we aren t just seeing and hearing first hand on the ground in Southern California but ensuring that the path forward is one of max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a dilemma that should have ended a long time ago he declared It s a beautiful day where people should be able to spend an Earth Day not worrying about foul smells in the air community robustness beach closures and so much more Zeldin mentioned But that s the reality that Americans in Southern California have had to live through for way too long They want action and they re right The meeting was held at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot In latest years the U S -Mexico territory line sewage toxicity trouble has closed beaches and caused serious vitality issues for certain residents Untreated wastewater from Mexico s Tijuana River crosses the territory line into the United States and washes out to sea just south of Imperial Beach The bacterial buildup from raw sewage in the wastewater has necessitated the closure of South Bay beaches almost without interruption for three years In a declaration Monday Rep Mike Levin D-Dana Point declared he looked forward to Zeldin s visit but what matters greater part is what happens after he leaves We need action And we need to fix this in a bipartisan way once and for all We can t allow Administrator Zeldin or anyone in the Trump administration to talk about solving this predicament while proposing cuts to the very agencies responsible for the answer Department of Regime Efficiency and House Republicans have already targeted funding for the International Boundary Water Commission which operates the plant Chula Vista Mayor John McCann who is running for the District county supervisor seat mentioned he was grateful to have Administrator Zeldin in San Diego to see firsthand the challenges our neighborhood faces and to help us push for sustainable long-term solutions I am committed to working alongside Administrator Zeldin to provide innovative solutions that will decisively put an end to this -year situation McCann added In response to Zeldin s visit to the Tijuana River on Tuesday which was also Earth Day the Transboundary Impurity Coalition for Advocacy and Healing issued a comment calling the trash a constituents wellbeing emergency Working families on both sides of the frontier have a right to be together outdoors around a healthy river and coastline according to the group The Tijuana River contamination problem is complex and binational and our community-based coalition is deeply committed to respecting human rights and working collaboratively in both the U S and Mexico The coalition describes itself as representing over community- based organizations authorities agencies and society leaders to drive collective awareness and action on the transboundary corruption situation impacting Southern California and the Tijuana region of Mexico Coalition personnel declared San Diego U S and Mexican personnel need to fund and implement immediate commonsense solutions for a healthy Tijuana River Now is the time to hold all policymakers accountable for common- sense solutions to fix the sewage industrial waste trash hydrogen sulfide and other toxins in our river ocean and air as well as prevent future impacts from context change and heal our communities that are suffering the greatest harm coalition officers noted