County Oversight Commissioner Nora Vargas and Vice Chairman Terra Lawson-Rimmer said on Wednesday in response to the closure of several county beaches for Independence Day, the US-Mexico cross-border sewage pollution from the Tijuana River. continued to call for a federal emergency to be declared.
They noted that July 4th was the 569th day in a row that beaches in the area were closed due to a sewage runoff from Tijuana into the ocean.
“As we saw this past holiday weekend when some beaches were closed for Independence Day, the pollution crisis in the Tijuana River Valley has reached a tipping point, and the federal government has urgently intervened to protect families. We need to help bring clean water to families and families, visitors from San Diego County,” Vargas said.
“These shutdowns continue to have a serious impact on the lives, health and economic well-being of many people, and we need a federal emergency if we really want to address this issue.”
Last Tuesday, the oversight board declared its first state of emergency for the Tijuana sewers and called on the Biden administration to declare a federal emergency.
After the vote, delegations from the San Diego County Legislature and the state Senate sent letters to Governor Gavin Newsom requesting that California join the state of emergency, and congressional representatives from the region relayed the request directly to Mr. Biden. .
“If 35 million gallons of sewage were pouring into the National Mall in Washington, D.C. every day, our government would have acted long ago,” Lawson Roemer said. “We still celebrate Independence Day here and many of the beaches in the area are not safe for swimming.
“At the current pace, my 4-year-old daughter may be in middle school by the time we see real progress,” she added. “The sewer crisis threatens our health, environment and economy. We need to declare a federal emergency and act now.”
Vargas and Lawson-Roemer added 2,500 county signatures to a petition calling for federal action against Biden.
Paloma Aguirre, who was elected mayor of Imperial Beach last year, said her community cannot wait another 15 years for improvement.
“Imperial Beach has been plagued by cross-border pollution for decades and this year the beach has been closed every day … the impact is very serious,” she said.