The Board of Supervisors is set to vote Tuesday on a proposal to design a new water treatment system that would intercept and clean contaminated river water before it reaches San Diego neighborhoods, beaches and waterways. The plan calls for spending $1.8 million on preliminary engineering work, along with an additional $4 million to address an urgent problem area along Saturn Boulevard, where sewage-tainted water becomes airborne and drifts into nearby communities.

Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said the county can no longer wait on federal and international partners to solve a problem that has plagued residents for generations.

“We need to capture all of this waste, all this pollution, and we need to treat it before it gets into our rivers, before it gets near our schools, before it gets to our beaches,” Lawson-Remer said.

The funding push is tied to a countywide ballot measure voters will decide in November. Known as the Protect San Diego County Health and Safety Act, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase could bring in roughly $360 million annually, with about $80 million a year set aside specifically for Tijuana River pollution projects.

County officials estimate that steady stream of tax revenue could support between $700 million and $1 billion in bonds — enough to finance construction of new treatment facilities. Lawson-Remer pointed to previous examples of the county using general obligation bonds to pay for major infrastructure, including airport terminals and road projects, as a model for how the sewage cleanup effort could be financed.

“So the only real question is whether we as a community have the will and the determination to make that same kind of long-term commitment and investment to solving the Tijuana River sewage crisis?” she said.

The pollution problem has plagued Imperial Beach, Coronado and other South County communities for years, forcing repeated beach closures, sickening swimmers and surfers, and even disrupting Navy SEAL training operations near Coronado. Beyond the water itself, the river releases hydrogen sulfide gas and other airborne toxins that have been linked to asthma, headaches and other health problems among residents living nearby. The contaminated water also carries industrial chemicals, pesticides and pharmaceutical residue.

Wastewater treatment plants on both sides of the border are supposed to filter out much of that contamination, but aging infrastructure has repeatedly failed over the past decade, allowing hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage to spill into the river. While recent federal investment — about $650 million — has funded repairs and upgrades to those facilities, significant amounts of pollution still bypass treatment altogether and flow directly into the waterway.

County leaders say a new facility built specifically to divert and treat river water as it crosses the border could close that gap.

“We can’t control what happens across the border, but we can control what we do on our side of it,” Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said.

Natalie Mladenov, an engineering professor at San Diego State University, said the treatment approach could range from advanced purification methods — including reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration and ultraviolet disinfection — capable of removing nearly all contaminants, to a more basic treatment process designed simply to meet federal ocean discharge standards.

Supervisors described the effort as a rare opportunity to deliver a lasting fix on an aggressive timeline, rather than continuing to depend on slow-moving federal and international negotiations.

“We will continue to pressure Washington and Mexico, but we will set the pace,” Aguirre said. “We’re done waiting for someone else’s timeline.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Will $1 Billion Investment Finally Solve the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

At YMCA Camp Surf in Imperial Beach last week, middle schoolers spent their morning skateboarding, scaling a climbing tower and shooting arrows at a target range. Then, at midday, they boarded a bus for a 40-minute drive up the coast to Mission Beach, where they finally got to do the thing the camp is named for: surf.

Founded in 1969, Camp Surf has introduced generations of South County kids to water sports and outdoor recreation. Tucked right against the shoreline, with its surf-shack décor of driftwood and fishing nets, the camp has long embodied classic Southern California beach culture.

But in recent years, access to the ocean itself has been cut off by persistent sewage pollution pouring in from Tijuana, forcing the camp to get creative just to give kids a chance to catch a wave.

“Instead of being able to access the ocean right from Camp Surf, we now have to bus kids to other beaches,” said Jamie Cosson, executive director of overnight camps for the YMCA of San Diego County. “And people’s relationship with the camp has really been affected by that.”

Cross-border sewage contamination has plagued Imperial Beach, Coronado and other parts of South County for decades, and the crisis has intensified in recent years. As Tijuana’s population has grown and wastewater treatment plants on both sides of the border have failed, hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage have poured into the ocean. The pollution has sickened swimmers and surfers and triggered near-constant beach closures over the past three years.

Residents of Imperial Beach describe waking up with headaches, asthma flare-ups and skin rashes after exposure to the water or to airborne pollutants from the Tijuana River. Local schools have shifted to alternative schedules when pollution spikes. Many residents of this working-class, majority-Latino community say they struggle to breathe, sleep and swim — and feel their environmental concerns have gone largely ignored.

The contamination has also chipped away at longtime traditions and made it harder for kids to simply play outside, leaving a generation of beach-town residents wary of the water.

“Without that access to a free, fun activity, the community isn’t as connected as it was when I was a kid,” said Taylor Case, 18, a recent graduate of Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach.

**When the coast is off-limits for surfing**

At the entrance to Camp Surf sits an amphitheater where campers and staff gather for songfests, skits and bonfires. Behind it, cabins painted in sage green, turquoise and beige feature palm-thatched roofs and fishing nets draped along the walls. In the dining hall, a wood-beamed room lined with windows looks out over an empty stretch of sand.

The shoreline used to be filled with campers surfing, bodyboarding and building sandcastles, said Payton Schoonmaker, the camp’s program director. On weekends, church groups, Girl Scout troops and families would often pitch tents there.

“It used to basically look like a tent city, with like 300 people camping on the beach,” she said. “But now a lot of that business has gone away.”

Last week, campers instead took a short walk along the shore with their counselor, who told them: “We’re going to take a stroll on the beach and pick up a little trash, too.”

This summer, the camp expects around 700 overnight campers, from third through 12th grade — down from 1,200 last year, according to Cosson. Another 400 or so day campers, from first through seventh grade, will also attend.

With a full day of outdoor programming, the camp offers a break from screens and social media. Electronic devices aren’t allowed; kids check their phones at the gate.

“I think camps hold an incredibly important place in society today, letting kids unplug from technology, connect with nature and build real relationships away from devices,” Cosson said.

Throughout the day, campers play soccer, work on crafts, tackle a 35-foot climbing tower, roll through the skate park and line up to take aim at the archery range.

Last week, as two girls debated whether an arrow had landed in the bullseye or the surrounding yellow ring, a boy nearby couldn’t resist chiming in: “Girls, that was a bad shot!”

“On their first round, they might not even hit the target,” Schoonmaker said. “By the last round, they’re hitting the bullseye with all five arrows, so in just an hour, you can see that progress.”

That boost in confidence and independence is really the heart of the camp experience, she said. “It’s about making friends, trying new things and feeling like you belong to a group.”

That includes surfing — even if it now takes a road trip to get there. Since 2023, the camp’s own beaches have been closed for most of the summer, forcing campers to travel elsewhere to surf and swim.

When conditions allow, they head to nearby Coronado, about 15 minutes north by bus. Lately, though, that city has also faced closures, pushing campers to travel even farther up the coast.

Last week, at midday, they boarded a bus, ate turkey sandwiches on the lawn at South Mission Beach, then paddled out en masse. Some kids tumbled off their boards the moment they tried to stand, while others quickly got the hang of it — one boy even popped a 180-degree spin while riding a wave toward shore.

“We’ve made it work,” Cosson said. “We still have a ton of kids out there — it’s just been a challenge for us.”

**Training young lifeguards**

The ripple effects of the beach closures extend well beyond the camp, creating gaps in outdoor education, physical activity, recreation and water safety training for kids across South County.

“We have children growing up in a community where they can’t get in the water, and that’s really tragic, because that’s where they learn about water safety and swimming,” Cosson said.

Like Camp Surf, Imperial Beach’s Junior Lifeguard program has had to make do with limited resources since the pandemic.

The program was suspended during COVID-19 shutdowns and then reopened facing a different kind of public health threat: sewage pollution.

“I don’t think we’ve had a single day with the beach open,” said Jason Lindquist, Imperial Beach’s lifeguard chief. “We go somewhere else. We bus everybody around. We can’t use the beach for anything. It’s been a real challenge.”

The program adapted by renting a school bus to shuttle young lifeguards up and down the coast. At first, they took kids to nearby Silver Strand Beach, just a few minutes north. But when that beach also began facing frequent water-quality closures, they had to broaden their search.

Imperial Beach’s junior lifeguards now follow a three-week schedule that includes stops at nearly every other coastal city in San Diego County, coordinated with neighboring lifeguard agencies.

“Every other lifeguard agency told us we could come whenever we wanted,” Lindquist said. “We’ve been all over the county. Our junior lifeguards probably have the most complete view of the coastline of anybody.”

Some kids get discouraged by the long bus rides, he said, but many participants and their parents actually enjoy the variety. Demand for the program routinely outpaces capacity, and transportation and staffing limits prevent the city from enrolling as many junior lifeguards as it would like.

That makes it harder to prepare Imperial Beach’s youth to enjoy the ocean safely — and to train the next generation of professional lifeguards.

“Imperial Beach’s identity has always been rooted in our coastline, and our Junior Lifeguard program plays a critical role in preparing local youth to become skilled ocean lifeguards, good citizens and community leaders,” Imperial Beach Mayor Mitch McKay said in a statement to CalMatters. “The importance of the program is undeniable — many current and former city lifeguards graduated from our Junior Lifeguard program and have gone on to become loyal, highly trained, full-time city employees.”

**”We don’t have that beach anymore”**

Families and community leaders in Imperial Beach have spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to live in a place where so much of the outdoor space is compromised by pollution.

In this city of roughly 25,000 residents, 53% are Latino, and the median household income is about $86,000 — roughly $20,000 below the San Diego County average and at least $50,000 below neighboring coastal cities. It’s one of the few places left in the region where working-class families can afford to live near the beach. But they can’t actually enjoy it.

“I always wonder what kind of message it sends to young people and families when the closest beach is closed and it’s hard to breathe,” said Tiffany Curry, public policy coordinator for Outdoor Outreach, a San Diego nonprofit.

The organization runs surf lessons and outdoor education programs for kids across South County — but not in Imperial Beach itself. Like Camp Surf, they bus kids to other beaches, sometimes as far north as Oceanside, roughly 50 miles away.

“Whenever we’re serving young people affected by the pollution, we have to take them out of their own communities,” Curry said.

San Diego County tests water quality at its beaches daily and, in 2022, began using DNA-based testing that delivers results within hours rather than days. The county issues warnings or advisories when bacteria or other contaminant levels exceed state standards, and imposes mandatory closures when a known sewage or chemical spill contaminates the water. Since 2023, much of Imperial Beach’s coastline has remained closed or under advisory almost continuously due to poor water quality.

Some improvements are in the works. The United States and Mexico have committed a combined $800 million to repair failing wastewater treatment plants, and both countries upgraded facilities last year. Local officials are also seeking $25 million to address a known pollution hotspot near Saturn Boulevard, believed to be a major source of airborne contamination. This year, Imperial Beach plans to build a water play area near its pier to give residents a way to enjoy the water close to shore, according to McKay.

For some young people in the community, those fixes still feel far off. Taylor Case has heard her mother and other Imperial Beach neighbors describe summer nights spent around beach bonfires, and had hoped to experience that herself before heading off to college this fall.

“They talk about how much fun they had with their friends and family, and how close-knit the community was, and I just don’t see that anymore,” said Case, who hasn’t gone into the ocean near her home since 2017. “And I know for a fact it’s because of the pollution, because we don’t have that beach anymore.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Sewage Contamination Keeps Children Out of the Water in This California Coastal Town appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

For nearly three years, children growing up along one of San Diego County’s most storied stretches of coastline have had to leave home just to swim in the ocean.

At YMCA Camp Surf in Imperial Beach last week, a group of middle schoolers spent their morning skateboarding, scaling a climbing wall and shooting arrows at a hay-bale target. Then, at noon, they piled onto a bus for a 40-minute ride north to Mission Beach — not because the camp lacks its own stretch of sand, but because the water just outside its doors is too contaminated to enter.

Camp Surf has welcomed generations of South County kids since 1969, teaching them to surf, boogie board and love the ocean. With its palm-thatched cottages and beachfront amphitheater, it embodies the quintessential Southern California summer. But persistent sewage pollution flowing north from Tijuana has forced the camp to rework decades of tradition, bussing campers to cleaner beaches simply to let them do what the camp was built for.

“Instead of being able to go into the ocean right there at Camp Surf, now we have to run buses to other beaches,” said Jamie Cosson, executive director of overnight camps for the YMCA of San Diego County. “And people’s relationship with the camp has been hurt by that.”

Cross-border sewage contamination has plagued Imperial Beach, Coronado and other South County communities for decades, but the problem has intensified sharply in recent years. As Tijuana’s population has grown and wastewater infrastructure on both sides of the border has failed to keep pace, hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage have flowed into the Pacific. The result has been chronic illness among swimmers and surfers and near-constant beach closures for the past three years.

Residents describe headaches, asthma flare-ups and skin rashes after exposure to the water or to airborne pollutants drifting off the Tijuana River. Local schools have adopted so-called “rainy day schedules” when pollution spikes. In a community that is largely working-class and majority Latino, many residents say their environmental burden has gone largely unnoticed by the rest of the region.

A camp reshaped by contamination

At the entrance to Camp Surf sits an outdoor amphitheater where campers gather each night for songs and skits. Behind it, sage- and teal-colored cottages topped with fishnet and thatch line a path toward a dining hall whose windows look out onto an empty beach.

That beach used to be full, said program director Payton Schoonmaker. Campers surfed, built sandcastles and boogie-boarded along the shore, while weekend visitors — Girl Scout troops, church groups, families — set up camp along the sand.

“Before this, you would have seen pretty much a tent city, with 300 people camping on the beach,” Schoonmaker said. “But now, a lot of our business has gone away.”

This summer, the camp expects roughly 700 overnight campers, down from 1,200 in years past, along with about 400 day campers. Cellphones are checked at the gate, leaving kids to spend their days climbing towers, riding skate ramps, and — when conditions allow — surfing.

Since 2023, the waters fronting Camp Surf have been closed for most of the summer season. When possible, campers travel to nearby Coronado, though that city has increasingly faced its own water-quality closures, pushing trips even farther from home. Last week, that meant a bus ride to Mission Beach, where campers ate sack lunches on the lawn before paddling out together.

“We’ve made it work,” Cosson said. “We still have lots and lots of kids out there, it’s just a challenge for us.”

Junior lifeguards look elsewhere, too

The ripple effects extend well beyond summer camp. Imperial Beach’s junior lifeguard program — long a rite of passage for local kids and a pipeline into professional lifeguarding — has also had to improvise.

“I don’t think we’ve had one day of the beach being open,” said Jason Lindquist, head lifeguard for Imperial Beach. “We go remote. We bus everybody out of here. We can’t use the beach for anything. It’s been a challenge.”

The program initially shuttled kids to nearby Silver Strand Beach, but frequent closures there forced lifeguards to expand their reach across the county, coordinating with lifeguard agencies in nearly every other coastal city in San Diego County.

“All the other lifeguard agencies said you’re welcome to come here any time,” Lindquist said. “We’ve been all over the county. Our junior lifeguards probably get the most well-rounded view of the coastline.”

Demand for the program still outpaces capacity, Lindquist said, limited by bus logistics and staffing. Imperial Beach Mayor Mitch McKay called the program essential to the city’s identity.

“Imperial Beach’s identity has always been rooted in our coastline, and our Imperial Beach Junior Lifeguard program plays a vital role in preparing local youth to become capable ocean life-savers, good citizens and community leaders,” McKay said in a statement. “Many current and past city lifeguards actually graduated from our Junior Lifeguard ranks and have become extremely capable full-time, loyal city employees.”

A community cut off from its coastline

Imperial Beach is home to roughly 25,000 residents, 53% of whom are Latino, with a median household income of about $86,000 — roughly $20,000 below the county average and tens of thousands less than neighboring coastal communities. It remains one of the few beach towns in the region where working-class families can afford to live near the water. Increasingly, though, they can’t use it.

“I’m always wondering what message that sends to youth and families, to have the nearest beach closed and the air is hard to breathe,” said Tiffany Curry, public policy coordinator for the San Diego-based youth organization Outdoor Outreach, which offers surfing and outdoor programs for South County kids — just not near their own homes. The group now buses participants as far as Oceanside, roughly 50 miles north.

“Whenever we serve youth impacted by pollution, we have to take them out of their communities,” Curry said.

Sergio Gonzalez, 16, a student in the marine biology program at Mar Vista High School, has watched the contamination firsthand during class visits to test water quality along Imperial Beach’s shoreline.

“When I walk on the beach, I see dead animals and birds,” Gonzalez said. “It really concerns me. I wish I could do something about it.”

San Diego County monitors beach water quality daily and, since 2022, has used DNA-based testing that delivers results within hours rather than days. Warnings and closures are issued when bacteria levels or other contaminants exceed state health standards. Since 2023, much of Imperial Beach’s shoreline has remained closed or under advisory almost continuously.

Some relief may be on the horizon. The United States and Mexico have committed a combined $800 million toward fixing failing treatment infrastructure, and both nations upgraded key facilities last year. Local leaders are also seeking $25 million to address the so-called Saturn Boulevard Hot Spot, a major source of airborne pollution near the border. This year, the city plans to build a splash pad near its pier to give residents an alternative way to cool off, McKay said.

For many young residents, though, those fixes feel distant. Taylor Case, 18, a recent Mar Vista High graduate preparing to leave for college, grew up hearing stories from their mother and other longtime residents about bonfires and gatherings along the shore — memories Case never got to make.

“They talk about how much fun they had with their friends and families, and how tight-knit the community was, and I just don’t see that now,” said Case, who hasn’t swum in the ocean near home since 2017. “And I know for sure that is because of the pollution, because we don’t have that beach anymore.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Sewage Contamination Forces Beach Closures, Keeping Local Kids Out of the Water appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.