When the Air Is Making Families Sick, Waiting Is Not an Option

Supervisor Paloma Aguirre represents San Diego County’s District 1 and serves on the governing board of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District.

I serve on the governing board of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District. In that role, I help make decisions about how air-quality dollars are spent and when they must be spent to protect public health. 

Right now, families in South Bay are living daily with the impacts of the Tijuana River sewage crisis, breathing hydrogen sulfide and other toxic aerosols as they sleep, work, or recreate. This is an active public health emergency that requires an emergency response.  

The air purifier program we are expanding through the Air Pollution Control District provides air filtration units to households most impacted by the sewage crisis to help reduce exposure to harmful pollutants indoors while long-term fixes are pursued. It is not the long-term solution. It doesn’t stop sewage flows or fix decades of broken infrastructure. Those solutions will take sustained binational, federal, state, and local action, and I remain fully committed to pushing for them.

But families can’t be asked to wait for relief while those larger systems move slowly. 

Every day we wait for an infrastructure fix, is another day a child’s lungs are irritated and a senior’s health compromised. 

That’s unacceptable. 

I’ve spoken with parents who can’t safely open their windows while at home. Seniors who wake up with headaches, nausea and irritated eyes. Families who received one air purifier and had to decide which room in their home deserved clean air. That is not a choice anyone should have to make. 

I recently spoke with Bertha from San Ysidro, who recently received an air purifier which has greatly improved her husband’s respiratory issues.  Or Camille, a mother who initially received one air purifier that she put in the bedroom where they sleep. The rest of her home remained exposed. Receiving an additional unit wasn’t about convenience. It was about protecting her children in more than one room. 

Another resident, Christina Green from San Ysidro, described the impact just as plainly: fewer headaches, less irritation, better sleep. Not a cure but real relief. 

The data confirms what families are telling us. Nearly 80 percent of participating households report reduced odors. Many reported fewer asthma and allergy symptoms and improved breathing. These are measurable health benefits delivered at a relatively modest cost – especially when compared to the massive infrastructure investments that will take years to complete. 

This is why the money needs to be spent and why more partners are needed. 

Families don’t get to opt out of breathing the air while we sort this out. 

For the coming year, the Air Pollution Control District has committed $1 million to continue expanding the air purifier program. That investment is critical, but it’s not enough to meet the scale of need. To meaningfully expand household coverage, replace filters, and ensure units remain effective across the South Bay, we estimate an additional $7 million will be needed in 2026. 

That’s not a small sum, but a realistic one. And it is well within reach if responsibility is shared. 

This crisis didn’t start locally and won’t be solved by one agency alone. That means funding must come from multiple places: federal and state partners who recognize this as a public-health emergency, local governments committed to protecting residents, and philanthropic organizations willing to step in while families bear the cost of delay. 

Expanding this program is not about choosing a band-aid instead of a cure. It is about immediately reducing harm while the larger fight continues. And it’s about ensuring that no family is told to simply endure unhealthy air because funding couldn’t be aligned in time. 

I understand concerns about limited resources and competing needs across our region. Other communities face serious air-quality challenges, and they deserve attention and investment as well. But the scale, duration, and severity of pollution tied to the sewage crisis in the South Bay demands action proportional to the harm families are experiencing. 

Until the sewage stops and the air is clean, South Bay families deserve immediate relief, and I’ll continue fighting to secure every dollar possible to provide it, even if that help comes one air purifier at a time. 

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