Excerpt:
Large amounts of untreated sewage flow daily from Mexico into Imperial Beach, Calif. That has closed beaches and sickened residents…
White sand stretches for miles where Pacific Ocean waves crash into the shore. Nearby, bicycles lean against seaside cottages that are accented by banana and palm trees out front. A rickety wooden pier offers spectacular views of sherbet-hued sunsets over the water.
To the eye, Imperial Beach, Calif., is an idyllic beach town, a playground for tourists and Southern California residents alike at the southern border with Mexico.
But lately, the view has been ruined by the sea breeze, which reeks of rotten eggs. The surfers who once prepared for big-wave competitions are gone. So are the tourists who built intricate sand castles and licked ice cream cones on the pier.
Imperial Beach is now the center of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters: Every day, 50 million gallons of untreated sewage, industrial chemicals and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County.
The cross-national problem traces back at least a century. But it has significantly worsened in recent years as the population of Tijuana has exploded and sewage treatment plants in both countries have fallen into disrepair.
“It’s a public health ticking time bomb that isn’t being taken seriously,” said Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of Imperial Beach. “We need help.”
Imperial Beach’s shoreline, which has drawn tourists for more than a century, has been closed for more than 1,200 days in a row because of health concerns.
A growing body of research suggests that even breathing the air may be harmful, as toxic particles in the water can become airborne. There are no overnight solutions, and officials on both sides of the border say that it will take yearslong expansions of sewage treatment plants to stop the pollution.
In the meantime, Ms. Aguirre permanently sealed shut the windows of her home to keep out the noxious stench.
More than 1,100 Navy recruits have contracted gastrointestinal illnesses after training in southern San Diego waters, the Office of the Naval Inspector General determined. And nearly half of the region’s 40,900 households have experienced health problems, including migraine headaches, rashes and shortness of breath, that were most likely attributable to the sewage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Things have grown so desperate that when Lee Zeldin, President Trump’s new environmental secretary and a former Republican congressman, arrived last month, even local Democrats cheered. On Earth Day, Mr. Zeldin came to Imperial Beach and vowed to urgently fix the sewage problem, which he said was “top of mind” for Mr. Trump.
“We are all out of patience,” Mr. Zeldin said…
