For the second time in January, local leaders traveled to Washington D.C. to urge congressional leaders to address the Tijuana River pollution crisis in swift and decisive action.
On Jan. 28, Coronado City Councilman John Duncan joined City of Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, to ask congressional leaders to prioritize funding to address the ongoing sewage crisis. The mayors spent three days addressing the issue of beach closures due to pollution along 10 miles of coastal waters of the southernmost part of the nation.
Last year, The Coronado News published a five-part series that examined the decades of broken promises by U.S. and Mexican officials that have resulted in a polluted ocean and shuttered beaches in Coronado and Imperial Beach.
Advocacy pressure continues from this group of elected officials, local organizations and residents who have also sent letters to highlight the severity of the problem and are actively asking the House and Senate to include these funds.
“I had been thinking of organizing a trip since the beginning of the year, and I knew that it would be key for us to do a bipartisan delegation,” said Aguirre. “I knew the timing was going to be challenging because right now Congress is discussing appropriations and spending bills…so the sooner we went, the better.”
According to Duncan, each of the three local leaders assisted in obtaining valuable “face-to-face” meetings to reach additional stakeholders—including the White House, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress members—to discuss the issue and potential solutions.
“We had an extremely busy visit with 20 meetings over three days,” said Duncan. “The message that a bipartisan effort needs to continue and we must keep this at the forefront of negotiations was mentioned by almost everyone we met with who thanked us for our work and passion. I am grateful to Mayor Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach who organized this impactful trip as well as Mayor John McCann of Chula Vista who was able to attend many meetings.”
“This is the most positive trip I’ve ever had because one, the level of knowledge of most of the members we visited was very high, it wasn’t re-explaining what the issue is. Two, there was a lot of support across the board, both from Republican and Democratic offices,” added Aguirre.
Earlier that month, Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey and Duncan traveled to D.C. to also request emergency supplemental funding.
While leaders continue asking Congress to approve the $310 million that would help a failing South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, Aguirre believes there should be “exemption for environmental review… as well as suspension of the bidding and procurement process” which impede the agency from accessing the funds immediately.
According to Duncan, this task is currently in the works through a pending bill which would give the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) the ability to accept funds from other governmental entities, like the state or county, and even potentially from private parties.
“That bill’s pending and while we were there, we got John Duarte signed off as a co-sponsor of that bill,” said Duncan. “That was a big win for us because one of the problems with the IBWC is they’re not allowed to accept funds unless there’s a specific piece of legislation that says they can. So even after the USMCA was passed, the EPA had the money, the IBWC couldn’t even get it from the EPA until another resolution was passed in Congress. So we’re just trying to permanently change that, especially if other funding opens up.”
The delegation group met with several representatives and offices to discuss the sewage crisis and funding across meetings in Washington, D.C. from Jan. 29-31. Photo provided by Paloma Aguirre. The EPA was one of the entities who listened in about the ongoing coastal sewage crisis. Photo submitted by John Duncan. 
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, CA US Senator Alex Padilla and Coronado Councilmember John Duncan meet to discuss the ongoing sewage crisis. Photo submitted by John Duncan. Mayor Bill Wells of El Cajon joined Mayor Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach, Mayor John McCann of Chula Vista and City of Coronado Councilmember John Duncan in a 45-minute meeting with Congress Member Darrell Issa. Photo submitted by John Duncan.
Support for federal funds
Following Coronado’s visit to D.C. earlier last month, Representative Scott Peters took to the House floor on Jan. 11 calling for supplemental funding to rehabilitate and upgrade the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) to combat cross-border wastewater pollution.
During the bipartisan group visit last week Governor Gavin Newsom also wrote to Congress, on Jan. 29., reiterating his support for the inclusion of $310 million in federal funding to solve the ongoing crisis in the Tijuana River Valley.
“I join President Biden, Senator Padilla, Senator Butler, the San Diego Congressional delegation, and state and local leaders representing the County of San Diego and 18 cities in Southern California urging you to include this critical funding,” read the letter by Newsom.
“The funds are needed to repair long-neglected infrastructure at the South Bay International Wastewater Plant—a federal facility on federal land. It is the federal government’s responsibility to complete the capital improvements to the facility that are required to stop the ongoing harmful discharges into the marine environment that are impacting public health, the local economy, and ecosystems and species in coastal communities,” the letter continues.
The following day, Rep. Peters thanked Governor Newsom for joining San Diego’s calls for funds, according to a press release.
“Governor Newsom has worked closely with the San Diego congressional delegation and me to advocate for a robust federal response to this environmental catastrophe. I will not stop in my fight to secure these funds as soon as possible and ensure San Diegans are no longer sickened by the scourge of wastewater pollution,” said Peters in a Jan. 30 statement.
United against pollution
With a similar commitment, Aguirre and City of Imperial Beach staff, along with McCann, Duncan, and community members like Laura Wilkinson Sinton, co-founder of Stop The Sewage.org from Coronado, shed light on the multifaceted consequences of this environmental crisis.
“We talked about all the different impacts; not just the public health impacts, but also the impacts to border security, military readiness impacts to Navy SEALs, and to our economy too,” said Aguirre who is planning to send a second letter to the White House and the EPA to ensure the process doesn’t get delayed.
Duncan said these conversations were “universally accepted and appreciated” like the letter writing campaigns from students and community groups, who will be encouraged to continue to write to Congress because “they say it does make a difference.”
“Part of what will determine the strategy for the future will be what happens in the next couple of weeks if we get it into a supplemental funding bill, where we can focus on the future. If we don’t, we have to focus on how to get it into 2025 before it’s too late,” said Duncan. “I’m certainly going to work on this issue whether I’m on a subcommittee or not.”
