The Coronado City Council officially declared a local emergency on March 4 in connection with the transborder flow of Tijuana sewage that has contaminated the local coastline and air.
The council had previously declined to pursue a declaration of emergency, arguing that it would only be a symbolic move, rather than affecting any actual change. However, at the City Council meeting in February, city staff was directed to draft the document that was signed on March 4.
“The environmental degradation from cross-border water pollution constitutes an economic and public health threat that is beyond the control of local resources, services, personnel equipment and facilities, and warrants this declaration of a local emergency,” the document reads.
Coronado beaches have been tainted by sewage outflow from Tijuana for almost a century. In 1934, the United States and Mexican governments instructed the International Boundary Commission to help prepare a report on a cross-border water pollution issue.
But the pollution has worsened in recent years as Tijuana’s sewage overwhelmed U.S. and Mexican treatment plants, flowing into the ocean and causing a public health threat that has closed beaches and endangered public health.
The surrounding cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, and Imperial Beach have already declared local emergencies, and Coronado had yet to join that call – until March 4, when the vote to officially declare an emergency passed 4-1, with Council member Mark Fleming opposed.
“I haven’t changed my feeling on this at all,” Fleming said. “I still feel like declaring a state of emergency is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”
He added that while a declaration itself will not speed up the process of fixing the issue, it could pose harm to the business community.
Council member Amy Steward, who noted a recent report from the Inspector General’s Office that found exceedingly unsafe levels of bacteria in the waters where Navy SEALs train, said she doesn’t know of a greater issue that would be considered an emergency.
“I also know that we have cities across the bay who are looking at Coronado and saying, ‘You’re not a team player,’ and you know what, that is not acceptable in my book. … We have to be lockstep on this,” Steward said.
Mayor John Duncan said either opinion, whether in favor of declaring an emergency or not, has nothing to do with the council’s commitment to the issue.
“We can have intellectual or factual disagreements on the effect of something,” he said.
The council will review the emergency declaration at least once every 60 days, and it will be terminated at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant, as the council sees fit.
