The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said during a visit to San Diego Tuesday that Mexico must stop the flow of billions of gallons of sewage and chemicals from Tijuana.
Lee Zeldin made the demand during an Earth Day trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he toured the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant that treats the sewage as a secondary facility and flew along the watershed to view the Tijuana River.
He also was scheduled to meet with Navy SEALs, who have been sickened while training in the water near Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado.
Zeldin said that in the next day or so, his agency will present Mexico a to-do list of projects to resolve the decades-long environmental crisis, but he stopped short of specifying how the Trump administration would hold Mexico accountable if it does not act.
The problem, which includes pollution in the ocean off Imperial Beach and Coronado, leading to frequent beach closures, noxious fumes emanating from the Tijuana River Valley and sickened residents, is “top of mind” for President Donald Trump, Zeldin said.
He added that the administration has not talked about possibly imposing tariffs if nothing is done.
“We’re going to know whether or not Mexico is going to do its part to resolve it, and then we’ll go from there, as far as strategy and tactics,” Zeldin said.
The 120-mile-long Tijuana River runs near the coast in Mexico and crosses the border, where it flows through South Bay communities, beaches and Navy-owned land before reaching the Pacific.
As wastewater treatment plants in Tijuana have aged and its population and industry have boomed, an increasing amount of toxins have made their way into the river and into San Diego County. Since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons of raw sewage laden with industrial chemicals and trash have polluted the river.
The pollution has sickened swimmers, surfers, lifeguards, schoolchildren, Border Patrol agents and others who do not even go in the water. Scientists say the sewage is vaporized – aerosolized – when it foams up and enters the air people breathe.
The Navy is reviewing whether to relocate its training site for SEAL candidates after the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses in its recruits from 2019 to 2023.
Since 2020 more than $653 million has been allocated to address the issue, but the crisis has continued largely because of delays by the Mexican government, Zeldin said. He added that he and Trump are hopeful that will change under the relatively new administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office last October.
Zeldin met Alicia Bárcena, secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, and other Mexican officials in San Diego for 90 minutes Monday evening. He said he left with the impression that Sheinbaum and her environmental secretary want to have a “strong collaborative relationship,” he said.
“What’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation,” Zeldin said. But he made clear that he wants Mexico to step up.
“There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere,” he said. “So we are all out of patience.”
Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretary, known as Semarnat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Semarnat posted on X that at Sheinbaum’s request, Bárcena met with Zeldin to discuss binational projects to clean up the Tijuana River.
Among local officials meeting with Zeldin were, from Congress, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Escondido, Rep. Mike Levin, D-Dana Point and Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, county Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, and South Bay mayors, John Duncan of Coronado and John McCann of Chula Vista.
Zeldin noted that cleanup efforts have rare bipartisan support. The meeting was held at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
Mexico is working on several wastewater treatment projects to reduce the flow and make major upgrades to its existing plants.
But Zeldin said Mexico must complete a number of other projects, including installing floodgates to collect trash in Tijuana. Another one being considered would divert 10 million gallons of sewage away from the shore.
In response to Zeldin’s visit. the Transboundary Pollution Coalition for Advocacy and Healing released a statement calling the pollution a public health crisis.
“Working families on both sides of the border have a right to be together outdoors around a healthy river and coastline,” according to the group. “The Tijuana River pollution crisis 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.”
Meanwhile, members of the groups San Diego 350 and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation were on hand for the event, saying in a statement they wanted “to protest the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on environmental protections,” citing cuts to funding for community and environmental health programs, and threats to the tax-exempt status of organizations dedicated to environmental protection and community health.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( U.S. ‘out of patience’ with Mexico, EPA chief says in San Diego visit to address Tijuana sewage crisis )
Also on site :