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TIME OF RECKONING | Surfline San Diego
SURF NEWS TIME OF RECKONING | Surfline San Diego
November 26, 2008
8934 visits
For many San Diegan surfers, a good hard rain is an inconvenience. If you follow the public health guidelines, it means 72 hours out of the water while you wait for the high bacterial levels associated with urban runoff to dissipate. For surfers in Imperial Beach and Coronado, the rains can mean weeks and often months of beach closures.
 
As we anticipate our first storm of the year, it is only a matter of time before the "first flush" out of Tijuana turns our bowly beach break into an environmental and public health disaster. Half an inch of rain can mean a month of beach closures. Every year, closures in Imperial Beach and Coronado due to Tijuana River pollution make up 80-95% of San Diego County's total beach closures, from San Onofre to the
U.S./Mexico border. Kids grow up here thinking that the bright yellow signs that sprout from the sand every winter are natural. After all, it's been like that their whole life.

"I get ear infections and skin rashes 'cause I surf," they say. And you have to tell them, "It's not because you surf. It's because the water's polluted.

South San Diego County beaches are literally downstream from one of the fastest growing cities in the developing world. Tijuana is home to nearly 2 million residents and is estimated to attract nearly 1,000 new residents a day -- people who come to work in the border assembly plants, or maquiladoras. Many endure without the basics of running water, sewage, or trash collection. Approximately half of Tijuana's residents don't have adequate sewage collection and treatment infrastructure. When it rains, storm water mixed with uncollected trash and sewage washes out the unpaved streets of the shantytowns, or colonias, crowding the border. Thousands of families are stranded with no access to water, food, or medicine.
Every year, closures in Imperial Beach and Coronado due to Tijuana River pollution make up 80-95% of San Diego County's total beach closures, from San Onofre to the U.S./Mexico border.
Ben McCue on the seriousness of the Tijuana River runoff issue
Tijuana, on average, is 300 feet higher in elevation than San Diego. After flooding the colonias in Tijuana, sewage contaminated storm water and trash enter San Diego via the main river channel and through specialized culverts under the Border Fence. The health threat is so extreme that the border patrol won a class-action lawsuit to receive hazardous pay for their work next to the Tijuana River. The river is also the biggest single source contaminant to coastal waters in California. Simply put, South San Diego County beaches are at the end of the pipe. The Navy Seals discontinued their training at Border Field State Beach when the health threat became too severe. In 2007, researchers at San Diego State University found hepatitis A and strains of poliovirus in 80% of the water samples off the Imperial Beach pier within three days of rain.

As surfers, we know better than anyone that the health of our environment affects our own health. The lesson we can learn from the Tijuana River is that pollution has no borders. The living conditions of our neighbors in Tijuana determine how well we, as surfers, live in South San Diego County. Unfortunately, the solution is much more than a weekend beach cleanup. It depends on our ability as a community to work across the border to improve the quality of life of our most disadvantaged neighbors.

Started in 2005, WiLDCOAST's Clean Water Campaign works to develop and advocate for the policies needed to reduce Tijuana River pollution. With a wave of grassroots support from the local community, and partnering organizations, WiLDCOAST has brought the issue's importance to elected officials on both sides of the border. Both the U.S. and Mexico have made concrete steps towards increased sewage treatment along the San Diego/Tijuana border in the last year. This summer, the U.S. announced the decision to upgrade the International Wastewater Treatment, which has been discharging off Imperial Beach for the past decade in violation of the Clean Water Act. For its part, Mexico inaugurated the first of three sewage treatment plants in Tijuana. When all three go online in 2009, the current discharge of raw sewage onto the beach just north of Baja Malibu will be eliminated.

These accomplishments are but a drop in the bucket. There is still much work to be done. To join the fight for clean water contact WiLDCOAST at (619) 423-8665 or visit www.wildcoast.net.

About WiLDCOAST and the author

Ben McCue is the Coastal Conservation Program Manager for WiLDCOAST, a bi-national nonprofit located in Imperial Beach.

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