This San Diego beach is considered one of the most polluted in U.S.: report
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego is known for its stunning beaches, drawing thousands out every year to bask in the sun and enjoy the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The region’s beaches often get recognition for this appeal, but one stretch of San Diego’s coast recently received a less than favorable acknowledgment from a national environmental group as one of the most polluted beaches in the entire U.S.
Imperial Beach, located at the southernmost tip of San Diego County near the border with Mexico, has long been saturated with pollution — the vast majority from cross-border sewage and a failing treatment plant leaking untreated water into the Tijuana River Estuary.
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This sewage crisis has been ongoing for more than three decades, making it one of the longest-running environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Locals know how pervasive and integrated into daily life water quality issues amid this crisis have become: South Bay businesses have suffered while residents of Imperial Beach have reported physical illnesses and foul stenches.
At the same time, locals have been prevented from enjoying the shoreline for long stints of time due to dangerous bacteria levels — the most recent beach closure has been in place for two straight years.
All of this was highlighted in Surfrider Foundation’s latest Clean Water Report, released last month. According to the nonprofit, the report collected thousands of samples from dozens of beaches across the U.S. to fill gaps in water quality testing and reveal chronic pollution problems.
Out of the 10 beaches with consistently high bacteria rates highlighted in the report, Imperial Beach came out as one of two that every water sample collected recorded levels exceeding recreational health standards.
The other beach with a high bacteria rate of 100% was Nāwiliwili Stream on Kaua’i, according to the report.
“This complex and beautiful region … has been plagued with severe pollution for decades,” Surfrider Foundation said in its report. “Every day, millions of gallons of contaminated water carrying stormwater runoff, raw sewage, harmful chemicals, and trash traverse the U.S.-Mexico border through the Tijuana River Watershed and flow out into the Pacific Ocean in Imperial Beach.”
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“This public health and environmental justice emergency has been going on for decades and it’s only getting worse, especially with climate change-related storm events further stressing the already inadequate and failing regional wastewater infrastructure,” the report continued.
Tireless advocacy by local elected officials and community groups has given way to a few recent policy wins, Surfrider noted, like the recent approval of more than triple the typical annual funding for the International Boundary and Water Commission to make dire fixes to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment plant. However, much more still needs to be done.
The nonprofit environmental group said they hope to do that, in part, by “elevating this issue to our national public consciousness” to build more pressure on state and federal leaders to “finally solve this crisis.”
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