South County Report: Aguirre Wields New Powers Against Sewage Crisis

Recently elected San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre took office in July promising to wield the full powers of her new job against the sewage crisis in the Tijuana River. 

Six weeks later, she’s wielding it. 

At next Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Aguirre plans to blitz her fellow supervisors with a series of proposals to fast-track county efforts on the crisis and lobby federal officials to do more to fix what Aguirre on Thursday called “the biggest public health crisis in the western hemisphere.” 

Aguirre plans to ask the county to begin work immediately on two region-wide studies approved by the Board in June, one measuring sewage-related health impacts to South County residents, the other tallying economic losses from closed beaches and other problems caused by pollution. 

She also will ask the Board to spend roughly $100,000 to hire a new lobbyist to educate federal lawmakers about the extent of sewage pollution in South County and build support for a comprehensive bi-national cleanup effort. 

Aguirre said federal efforts so far have addressed problems at a previously ailing cross-border sewage plant but have done little to tackle what she said is the main cause of the sewage crisis: Untreated sewage and industrial waste cascading into the Tijuana River and Pacific Ocean from loosely regulated residential developments in Tijuana and environmentally lax Mexican factories making products for American companies and consumers. 

“Until you address the river, we will have closed beaches and people getting sick,” Aguirre said. 

Aguirre said she plans to travel to Sacramento later this month to address one aspect of river pollution. She said she’ll advocate to use $50 million earmarked for the sewage crisis in a climate resilience ballot initiative passed by state voters last November to fix a sewage hot spot near Imperial Beach that may be responsible for much of the river-related air pollution plaguing South County residents. 

That hot spot is also on next week’s Board agenda. Aguirre plans to ask county officials to figure out how to calm the river’s flow at a place where its channel narrows and a series of concrete barriers cause frothy water that kicks up a cloud of airborne sewage pollutants. 

Aguirre’s efforts continue the following week, when, at her urging, the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District will hold a special meeting to consider ways to streamline and expand the agency’s program providing free air purifiers to South County residents affected by sewage pollution. 

“This is how we meet our commitment to our community,” Aguirre said. “Not to wait anymore.” 

On the Water: Aguirre announced her slew of proposals during a Thursday morning South County coastline boat tour she chartered to give reporters and local environmentalists an up-close view of where river pollution comes from and how it affects local communities. 

“You see brown spigots of water pouring down cliffs into the ocean in Tijuana,” Aguirre said as the whale watching boat she chartered approached the U.S.-Mexico border. “The main problem is the river itself and these sources of raw sewage pouring into the ocean at the beach.” 

Though United States Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Lee Zeldin recently trumpeted a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to speed up construction at the cross-border sewage plant and pressure Mexican officials to resolve the crisis, Aguirre downplayed those efforts, saying they sound good but have not resulted in measurable changes to public health. 

She pointed out that all South County beaches, from Imperial Beach to Coronado, were closed on Thursday due to high levels of bacteria and other pollutants. 

“It’s very naive of the Trump administration to say, ‘Yay, we made Mexico commit,’” she said. “Sure, they’ll commit to anything. But will they follow through?” 

Aguirre said there is a growing divide between Trump officials, who seek to project strength by demanding accountability from Mexico, and longtime advocates on the sewage issue, who she said are more skeptical about what the Mexican government can and will do in the long run. 

“I don’t know if the Trump administration’s confrontational style is moving the needle or not,” she said. “It’s too early…Until we see results here, it’s not effective.” 

Aguirre said an easier and more achievable solution would be simply to build enough sewage treatment capacity on the U.S. side of the border to collect and treat the sewage Mexico doesn’t treat now and may never get around to treating in the future. 

Trump “could do that tomorrow,” Aguirre said. “We have the resources to do that. But he doesn’t have the political will.” 

Aguirre said as long as Trump insists on looking tough by requiring Mexico to pay to treat its own sewage, San Diego County will suffer. Sure, she said, Mexico should treat its own waste. And Mexico should regulate new residential development and enforce environmental laws. 

 But, given the track record of previous Mexican governments, Aguirre said American officials need to be realistic if they actually want to solve San Diego County’s sewage problem. 

“The rhetoric makes [Trump administration officials] feel good. But does it bring results? No,” she said. “As supervisor, I want to focus on what we can do.” 

Outtakes: Reading through documents related to the sewage proposals Aguirre intends to bring to the Board of Supervisors next week, I noticed one telling detail. 

To pay for some of the plans, Aguirre will ask the Board to repurpose $270,000 supervisors appropriated last year to design a sports complex and border gateway arch in the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. 

That gateway park project was the darling of former South County Supervisor Nora Vargas, who resigned unexpectedly late last year, triggering the special election that brought Aguirre to the Board of Supervisors. 

There was no love lost between Vargas and Aguirre during Vargas’ tenure on the Board. Looks like the love is still lost now that Aguirre has Vargas’ old job. 

And just for fun: Thursday’s boat ride mostly consisted of presentations and interviews with Aguirre and various environmentalists from the United States and Mexico…until suddenly the boat pilot announced a big pod of dolphins was cavorting just ahead. 

Sewage talk evaporated as everyone raced to the bow to watch dozens of dolphins, including several pups just a week old, leap and dive around the boat, sometimes surfing the boat’s wake and seeming to show off for passengers. 

San Diego may be polluted. It’s still pretty great here. 

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