Flooding, contaminated water ransacks ranches along Tijuana River Valley
TIJUANA RIVER VALLEY, Calif. — Monday’s torrential downpour across San Diego County could not help but force some longtime South Bay residents to draw comparisons to flash flooding chaos back in 2008.
FOX 5 was able to join horse and ranch owners along the Tijuana River Valley on horseback as our team chugged through deep contaminated water. “It happened over the course of 20 minutes,” said one local.
Horse after horse was led out to dry ground as water from the Tijuana River turned stables, roads and corrals into pools of sewage at Driftwood Ranch along Hollister Road.
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“I know there are about a hundred horses there, so now all those horses are displaced.”
Although the area is a known spot for flooding, locals say this is a sight they have never seen, referencing areas of water nearly two feet deep.
“We’re moving them to a different ranch right now, we’re doing about three horses a time because the stalls don’t have a divider, they’re pretty agitated right now, we don’t want them sighting,” said one resident.
Down the way is another piece of land turned river. “Look at all the trash, look at all this contaminated water,” said Baron Partlow who runs a local grassroots organization called “Stop the Poop.”
West Coast Turf sod farm is now blanketed with debris. Early Monday evening, emergency crews dug through thick piles of sewage to rescue a coyote shackled in garbage.
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“Due to know drudging by the county west of the Dairy Mart bridge, this is going to be here for a very long time,” Partlow explained.
Locals are now bracing for what is to come, some even pointing the blame at damaged levies in need of desperate solution.
“It allows the water to come in here and if you look at the photographs, aerial, photographs of past years, the water never came here,” said Leon Benham who acts as the Executive Director with Citizens for Coastal Conservancy.
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