XPost: free.nancy.pelosi.sewage.plant, sac.politics, talk.politics.guns
XPost: talk.politics.misc

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) � Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre patiently talked to residents while spending some time at the foot of the city�s
iconic pier, the overriding topic of conversation was the sewage problem
in the nearby Tijuana River Valley.

Imperial Beach, or I.B. as the locals refer to it, is the American city
most impacted by the sewage that comes in from Mexico every day.

A lot of this effluent ends up in the ocean, forcing the closure of
California beaches in city�s like I.B. and Coronado to the north.

�It�s the worst it�s ever been, it�s the border crisis nobody is talking about,� Aguirre said.

The mayor told Border Report that recent storms dropped a tremendous
amount of rain bringing with it staggering levels of raw sewage from the
south side of the border.

Aguirre says the city of Tijuana doesn�t have the infrastructure to handle sewage generated from its 2 million residents. She added that the sewer
system is tied to the storm-runoff network, so when it rains, a heavy
volume of harmful raw sewage is released and flows downhill into
California�s Tijuana River Valley.

On Jan. 22, approximately 14.5 billion gallons of water tainted with raw
sewage made its way into the United States, according to figures published
by the International Boundary and Water Commission.

In the past week, IBWC says, numbers show about 1 billion gallons of
stormwater containing a small percentage of raw sewage pouring in daily.

�All of that flow impacts us all the way from the border north of
Coronado, sometimes all the way to Point Loma, so that�s the entire south county of San Diego,� she said. �We�ve had the southern end of Imperial
Beach closed for over 800 consecutive days, and in this stretch of beach
where we�re at has been closed every single day this year and every single
day last year.�

Aguirre fears more flows and more beach closures will continue to happen
if a wastewater treatment plant on the north side of the border isn�t
fixed soon, so it can handle the sewage that comes in from Mexico.

�This plant has been operating on the verge of collapse, the plant needs
to be expanded to double its capacity,� she said.

Money for these repairs is said to be in the works. More than $300 million
have been allocated to upgrade the plant as well as other sewage
infrastructure on both sides of the border.

President Joe Biden has also requested additional funding, but that money remains stuck in Congress.

�Beach closures have a tremendous impact on the quality of life for the
750,000 residents that use these beaches, beaches of south San Diego
County,� Aguirre said.

She�s also concerned with the ongoing health problems she blames on
bacteria that comes from the sewage, pathogens that get in the air and are pushed by the wind to areas away from the coast or the Tijuana River
Valley.

Aguirre says the pollution is also endangering the lives of Border Patrol agents who work in the valley. Border Report reached out to U.S. Customs
and Border Protection seeking comment about the polluted waters affecting agents in the field, but did not hear back.

�They are being impacted by chemical burns, asthmatic attacks, they have
even received hazard pay for having to function in these conditions,�
Aguirre said.

And just up the coast from Imperial Beach is the brand-new Navy Seals
facility where, according to the Navy, the contamination is making an
impact on training.

In a written statement to Border Report, the Navy wrote: �When water is contaminated, in-water training evolutions are delayed, moved or
canceled.�

Aguirre says this is affecting the Seals� military readiness.

�Every single Navy Seal has to come and train in Coronado, their readiness
is being impacted by the sewage pollution.�

https://www.borderreport.com/regions/california/sewage-in-tijuana-river- valley-is-the-worst-its-ever-been/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)