Their shorelines are contaminated. Their roads sometimes flood with sewage-laced water. The air they breathe makes them nauseous.
What can a small town of mostly working-class people do to get reprieve from cross-border pollution?
Hundreds of Imperial Beach residents rallied Friday evening by their local pier to pose the question and express anger about the pace at which government agencies have addressed the crisis.
“The reason we’re all here tonight is to be ed in unity and demand a solution now, not in 10 years, not in 15 years,” resident Jessica McKee, who helped organize the protest, told the crowd.
“You don’t dare venture outside when the most horrid stench rolls in,” the nurse and mother went on. “We used to ride our bikes in the estuary with my kids. I don’t dare do that now. Our children have a front row seat to this ecological disaster. … The air, the sand, the water is contaminated. Nowhere is safe.”
Thunderous claps followed.
McKee and other organizers addressed families, business owners, children and voters, who chanted slogans like “Fix it now.” They held handwritten signs that read, “We are Flint. Stop the poisoning” and “Call the state of emergency.” The water crisis in Flint, Mich., began in 2014 when the city changed its municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River, causing pipes to corrode and contaminating drinking water with lead.
Lifelong resident Linda Sokol stood in the crowd. She attended the rally because she felt people’s voices haven’t been heard enough.
“I’m tired of it,” she said. “We’re gonna keep getting louder and louder until they’re heard because, like I said, it’s not just the beach neighbors that are affected. It’s all our neighbors who want to come here and enjoy the beach. We pay our taxes and expect to be protected.”
Residents expressed frustration over recent news that an outdated wastewater treatment plant in San Ysidro, which serves as a backstop for Tijuana sewage, has finally secured contractors to repair and expand it, but it will take more than five years to complete the work, according to officials.
Mexico is also expected to complete its reconstruction of a treatment plant in Baja California this fall, which officials say should significantly reduce the volumes of untreated wastewater dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps before then, additional millions of gallons of sewage flows per day can be expected to make their way into San Diego as Mexico repairs a coastal collector south of the border.
Last week, U.S. State Department officials visited the San Ysidro treatment plant and said they were working closely with Mexican officials to ensure completion of projects that will reduce cross border sewage flows.
Already, an average of 40 to 50 million gallons of sewage per day reach south San Diego shorelines.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said in a recent statement that it is “inconceivable that we are expected to wait nearly a decade for clean water. The traditional government procurement process is alarmingly slow and fails to address the critical wastewater infrastructure needs along our border.”
She continues to push for a federal emergency declaration to expedite the implementation of infrastructure solutions and to help people exposed to the pollution.
