Calls to unlock a long-term pot of funding for the Tijuana River Valley cleanup have stirred local leaders in different directions.
At the Oct. 8 County Board of Supervisors meeting, Vice-Chair Terra Lawson-Remer asked her fellow supervisors to join her in formally requesting federal Superfund designation for 6 miles of the lower Tijuana River Valley.
When the board declined to immediately back that call, Lawson-Remer announced she will file a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on her own.
In a board letter, Lawson-Remer encouraged the board to safeguard public health.
“The petition should highlight that the Tijuana River crisis involves toxic chemicals and hazardous substances, not merely a sewage issue, underscoring the broader environmental and public health risks posed by long-standing industrial and chemical pollution,” reads the letter.
In requesting her colleagues to back this request, Lawson-Remer also encouraged the county to allow community leaders and the public to be co-signers, and to share their experiences with toxic contaminants.
“Even after we fix the sewage discharge problem, and even if the air is cleaner to breathe, there could very well be waste buried in the sediment that could bubble up and harm our communities,” said Lawson-Remer. “What this board letter asks my colleagues to do today is to support a request to the EPA to come out and do a site inspection.”
Lawson-Remer got support for the petition from some key South County mayors and academics.
“I am here in strong support of the Superfund designation site given all of the pollutants that our communities have been exposed to for years,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre. “Please support this item. Don’t delay it, don’t continue it.”
“It doesn’t just smell like hydrogen sulfide when you’re down there either, there’s a chemical smell, we’ve all said it, we all know it,” said Paula Stigler Granados, from San Diego State University’s School of Public Health.
“This community deserves this,” added Granados, who is doing research in the valley as part of The Tijuana River Pollution Task Force, “it’s an injustice to not take a deeper look to see how many things are in this environment that could be affecting the public health and the environment in this region.”
Following public comment, with hundreds of people writing in to voice their support of the petition, Chairwoman Nora Vargas issued a motion directing the county’s Chief Administrative Office to provide a detailed analysis of legal options and funding opportunities – including a potential EPA Superfund designation – within 90 days.
That motion passed with a 3-2 vote, with Lawson-Remer and Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe voting against it.
Vargas claimed to support the spirit of Lawson-Remer’s request, but requested more details about the process before formally endorsing it.
“It could take decades before any meaningful cleanup even begins,” said Vargas. “The community must be engaged and fully informed on the long-term consequences of a Superfund designation, including potential impacts on property values and local investments. I appreciate the intent behind this proposal and I’m not saying no to this item, but I believe there are other options we should explore that could bring faster relief and greater benefits to those communities.”
Petition continues with local support
Shortly after county supervisors declined to endorse her letter, Lawson-Remer announced plans with regional colleagues to submit her petition.
According to Lawson-Remer’s office, the call for a Superfund designation has been joined by officials from Imperial Beach, National City, and the Air Pollution Control District, among others.
“I am working with leaders from across the San Diego region who have already expressed to me their support for pursuing Superfund designation, and we are submitting an immediate petition to the EPA requesting a Superfund designation,” said Lawson-Remer in a statement. “I hope my colleagues will join us after their report comes back in 90 days.”
“I am grateful to the over 350 people who sent in comments in support of Vice-Chair Lawson-Remer’s initiative to petition the USEPA to begin the process to designate parts of the Tijuana River Valley as a Superfund site,” Aguirre said in an email to The Coronado News.
Last month, Aguirre also requested this designation from President Biden in a letter dated Sept. 24.
“Despite the item being delayed by Chair Nora Vargas, we will move forward without delay and submit the petition ourselves in partnership with highly affected residents who reside at the epicenter of this crisis, in the Tijuana River Valley,” added Aguirre. “We know that securing Superfund designation is a long process, but beginning it now is crucial to prevent further delays in remediation efforts, especially in light of our unanswered call for a state of emergency. Our community cannot afford to wait any longer while hazardous chemicals continue to threaten our community.”
Lawson-Remer’s support for Superfund
Lawson-Remer’s office said outreach to gather community testimonials has begun and will be submitted with the formal petition to the EPA in a letter that is being drafted in collaboration with local officials.
The EPA confirmed it will review the petition once it is received.
A Superfund designation allows the EPA to clean up contaminated sites, according to the federal agency, and was originally established by Congress as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) more than 40 years ago.
The county document detailing Lawson-Remer’s official request to the supervisors says Superfund designation is given to the most toxic and polluted sites in the U.S.
It provides authority and funding to remediate pollution while holding responsible parties accountable with key benefits including federal funding for site investigation, cleanup, and long-term remediation efforts.
Since its inception, the Superfund program has achieved an estimated $50.3 billion of potentially responsible parties’ commitments for site cleanup and reimbursements for the agency’s costs spent cleaning up sites, the EPA reports.
The EPA said the Superfund program saw over $1.3 billion in pre-construction, construction and post construction funding nationally for fiscal year 2023 as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Currently, the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base is the only location in the county designated as a Superfund site. There are more than 1,000 EPA-designated Superfund sites across the nation, including over 100 in the state.
Lawson-Remer’s document, as it reads, said a petition is the first step in fast tracking hazardous waste cleanup and holding polluters accountable.
The document also details a five-step process for Superfund designation that includes research, site inspections and a determination of toxic risk factors based on a federal Hazardous Ranking System that a site must score 28.5 or higher in to be eligible for a plan and resources.
Lawson-Remer said the riverbed has been polluted with wastewater, including toxic substances, for 80 years.
“Although we do know that previous studies have found traces … we don’t know what’s in there,” she added. “We don’t have a full picture of what’s in the sediment.”
“The work to clean up the Tijuana River Valley has to proceed on multiple fronts at the same time,” said Lawson- Remer. “All of our conversations to date have been entirely around the sewage and the air, and we have not focused on potential long term contaminants in the soil and the groundwater.”
