As torrential rains swelled the Tijuana River on Jan. 22, ranches north of the U.S.-Mexico border flooded in the morning hours. By afternoon, they resembled large swimming pools of mud.
This past week, Mario Bañuelos was still cleaning foot-deep mud and debris from the outdoor kitchen at his family’s leisure ranch in the Tijuana River Valley. It was an arduous task, and a daunting one performed a few days before a series of new storms began to slam the West Coast.
The Coronado News, as part of its ongoing investigation into the Tijuana sewage crisis, spoke with individuals who spend significant time at the ranches in the Tijuana River Valley, which is about two miles from the border, to learn how their lives changed in a matter of minutes during a storm that brought with it cross border flows and trash severely damaging properties.
Last year, The Coronado News published a five-part series that examined a history of broken promises by U.S. and Mexican officials that resulted in a public health menace and closed shorelines in Coronado and Imperial Beach.
This environmental crisis has existed since the Great Depression and now these generational ranches find themselves affected during heavy storms, when trash and sewage flows through.
Calls for state of emergency continue
Across the coast, one week after the flooding, local leaders traveled to Washington D.C. to address the pressing Tijuana River pollution crisis and continued requests for a state of emergency declaration.
City of Coronado Councilmember John Duncan joined Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann in a delegation of local officials to request for the approval of $310 million in supplemental funds for repairs and rehabilitation of a deteriorating wastewater treatment plant in San Ysidro.
“We need to have additional funding by the federal government to be able to upgrade the current facility on the U.S. side,” McCann told The Coronado News. “Getting that funding and building a new plant will substantially help our residents by creating a much more safe environment for the local community.”
One ranch in the Tijuana River Valley floods during a storm affecting all of San Diego on Jan. 22, 2024. Photo provided by Mario Bañuelos. By mid-afternoon on Monday Jan. 22, half of one ranch was covered in water. Photo provided by Mario Bañuelos. Standing water covered cars and loose materials floated inside one ranch on Jan. 22. Photo provided by Mario Bañuelos. 
Mud and debris was scattered across one ranch’s kitchen area after the water receded following a Jan. 22 storm and flood. Photo provided by Mario Bañuelos.
Heavy Rainfall
The morning of Jan. 22, ranchers south of the Tijuana River began to notice nearby flows spreading across property lines and past noon, some ranches north of the river were also covered in more than 3 feet of water.
“The damage to stuff…it’s just hours and hours of labor.”
Mario Bañuelos
“The damage to stuff…like tables, chairs, old motorcycles, …I have four antiques, they got damaged,” said Bañuelos. “We’re washing and cleaning, hopefully it didn’t do any electrical damage, but…it’s just hours and hours of labor.”
Ranch owners and tenants said they expect rain events to bring in minor flooding, but they did not expect the historic rainfall of that Monday and now are left to replace damaged items themselves.
The U.S. Weather Service recorded more than two inches of precipitation across much of San Diego on Jan. 22.
“Monday’s record rainfall revealed the fragile state of the City’s stormwater infrastructure and the need for significant investments going forward to prevent the current situation from becoming the new normal for San Diego,” read a City of San Diego statement to the Associated Press regarding the storm water system.
The following day, data shared by the United States Section, International Boundary & Water Commission (IBWC) San Diego Field Office revealed that the Tijuana River had reached its highest peak flow in over 30 years – spewing raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean.
“We experienced significant flow at the SBIWTP of up to 75 million gallons per day (MGD) with the storm peak yesterday,” wrote Area Operations Manager Morgan Rogers on Tuesday Jan. 23. “This storm brought the highest peak flow in the Tijuana River since 1993 and the 4th highest peak flow since the IBWC began operating the river gauge in 1962.”
Maintenance in the Tijuana River Valley
A subsequent 12-second video sent to The Coronado News captured gray waters rushing along the Tijuana River carrying with it floating trash.
“This has been going on for years, it’s nothing new, but this one was pretty bad,” said Bañuelos. “Three feet of water and then all the stuff that it brings in when it’s flowing, anything that’s going to float, it’s going to end up in the property.”
Bañuelos, 68, who resides in the greater San Diego area, said his family has owned a 10-acre property in the northern portion of the river valley dating back to the 1980s and recalls a prior heavy downpour in 1993.
“That was really, really, really bad,” said Bañuelos, who remembers seeing bodies of individuals who were swept away attempting border crossings, and witnessing horses trapped in mud.
“How do you get ready for something that came too quick?”
Mario Bañuelos
“This past one was too much in too little time,” said Bañuelos about the flash flood this year. “How do you get ready for something that came too quick?”
Mary Powell echoed Bañuelo’s concern for the amount of trash that makes its way from Tijuana into the canal causing dirt and debris, especially when it floods.
“The problem is it’s just a lack of maintenance, which has been happening all over the city.”
Mary Powell
“Tires are one of the most destructive things that flows through from Mexico when it rains,” said Powell. “We just say it’s our zip code… Everybody expects there’ll be a hundred year flood or 200 year flood, …but this water that comes in the transboundary flows is sewage. …I know everybody’s looking for culprits to the problems. The problem is it’s just a lack of maintenance, which has been happening all over the city.”
The City of San Diego did not respond to a request for comment from The Coronado News regarding sediment and trash clean up processes and protocol procedure by appropriate departments during floods in the Tijuana River Valley area.
Unlike the rain event reported in January of last year, Rob Brisley, the public affairs officer at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that CPB in San Diego did not respond to flooding calls for service on Monday Jan. 22 or Jan. 23. The agency also did not provide assistance when the new series of rains began on Feb. 1.
Horse evacuations
Across neighboring ranches, horses had to be moved to higher ground or evacuated to property north of the Tijuana River where major flooding ceased to occur.
“It filled up real fast,” said one ranch volunteer, Mark Payne, who captured images of the flooding with his drone. “It basically just flooded the whole area within pretty much minutes.”
Monument Rd. minutes after the berm broke during Monday’s storm. Photo provided by Mark Payne. The flooding made it difficult for trailers to get through. Photo provided by Mark Payne. The ranches and surrounding areas were flooded west and east of Hollister. Photo provided by Mark Payne. As of Saturday (Jan. 27) the area was drying out and Hollister St. was still flooded. Photo provided by Mark Payne. Debris left behind as the water recedes. All horses and other livestock in the area were moved to dry areas and were safe. Photo provided by Mark Payne.
Powell, who currently serves on the IBWC San Diego Citizens Forum, a committee that discusses problems and solutions for the Tijuana River pollution, said three of her horses, which she keeps on a private ranch along Hollister Street south of Imperial Beach, were moved to higher ground during the flood as part of the ranch’s evacuation plans in place for such situations.
“We do the best we can, we take care of our animals, we get them out of the floodwater, we clean their feet, we take care of them so they’re safe,” said Powell.
Powell is also president of the Tijuana River Valley Equestrian Association (TRVEA), a 100-plus member non-profit with headquarters at Driftwood Ranch, one of the ranches along Hollister St. that had to evacuate dozens of horses.
Imperial Beach resident and trainer Melissa Shanholtz said she was at Driftwood Ranch before the flooding began and returned that Monday afternoon to safely help evacuate 100 horses.
“You could hear it coming, it was a current, it looked kind of like a tsunami, because it was cracking bushes down. Within 15 minutes, we were probably three feet in water.”
Melissa Shanholtz
“I had a friend text me around 2:30 p.m. and he was like, ‘You know what? You should probably come down here, it’s starting to get really bad,’” said Shanholtz. “When I got there, it was up to my ankle, and then by the time I got to the end of my arena, it was up to the top of my boot.…You could hear it coming, it was a current, it looked kind of like a tsunami, because it was cracking bushes down. Within 15 minutes, we were probably three feet in water.”
Shanholtz and her team worked tirelessly for two to three hours relocating the animals to other ranches.
“I’ve been in three floods, unfortunately, to say …But this one, it came in so fast and so strong, and it was everywhere that it was hard to determine, ‘Okay, what horse do I get?’ because the current was just going through. So I just kind of went, ‘Okay, if they’re in standing water,’ I left those ones for last. If they were in the current, then I got those ones out first.”
Shanholtz also said the water brought in “a lot of trash” and the arena was left “like a duck pond” for about four days, and they had to drain the mud.
“The sewage water sitting is not going to be well for us over time because it gets in our ground and that causes viruses for the horses and even us,” Shanholtz said. “We had some stalls come down, so some stall panels got ruined, our arena was out, so it took a lot of our sand out of the arena.”
Preparing for future rain events
Following a ranch meeting on Saturday Jan. 27, Driftwood staff and volunteers convened to discuss safety protocol for rain events including leaving halters with phone numbers and lead ropes on unlocked stalls and ensuring horses have food and clean water.
“We want to make sure we can contact the owner if they’re not there or if the horse gets displaced,” said Shanholtz.
Beyond new ranch responses to storm events, Shanholtz is looking to organize a community-led effort to remove “pounds of trash” in a valley clean up.
“We can go and clean out the valley ourselves…I think we can get more done as a village.”
Melissa Shanholtz
“I’m trying to get a GoFundMe going for our valley that way we can at least sponsor our diesel and our gas or dump trucks so we can go and clean out the valley ourselves because we’ve been waiting on the city for how long and they don’t do anything about it,” said Shanholtz. “I think we can get more done as a village.”
