San Diego is famous for its beautiful beaches, attracting many visitors every year to enjoy the sun and the Pacific Ocean.
However, one part of San Diego’s coast, Imperial Beach, has been named one of the most polluted beaches in the U.S. by a national environmental group.
Imperial Beach is located at the southernmost part of San Diego County, near the border with Mexico.
It has been dealing with pollution for a long time, mainly due to sewage from across the border and a broken treatment plant that leaks untreated water into the Tijuana River Estuary.
This sewage problem has been happening for over thirty years, making it one of the longest-running environmental issues in the country.
People living in the area know how serious the water pollution is. Businesses in South Bay have suffered, and residents of Imperial Beach have reported getting sick and smelling bad odors.
The pollution has also kept people from enjoying the beach because of high bacteria levels. The most recent beach closure has lasted for two years straight.
Surfrider Foundation’s latest Clean Water Report, released last month, highlighted this issue.
The nonprofit group collected thousands of water samples from many beaches across the U.S. to show where pollution is a big problem.
Out of the 10 beaches with the highest bacteria levels, Imperial Beach was one of two where every sample had bacteria levels above safe limits for recreation. The other beach was Nāwiliwili Stream on Kaua’i.
The Surfrider Foundation’s report said that millions of gallons of polluted water cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day through the Tijuana River and end up in the Pacific Ocean at Imperial Beach.
This water carries stormwater runoff, raw sewage, harmful chemicals, and trash.
The report described this as a public health and environmental emergency that has been getting worse, especially with climate change causing more severe storms and putting more stress on the already failing wastewater systems.
Local officials and community groups have worked hard to address the issue and have achieved some recent successes.
For example, they secured more than triple the usual annual funding for the International Boundary and Water Commission to make urgent repairs to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment plant. However, much more still needs to be done.
The Surfrider Foundation hopes to raise awareness of this issue across the country to put more pressure on state and federal leaders to finally solve this crisis.