The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 9 unanimously approved new studies to assess public health, economic impacts and toxic gas implications from what supervisors called one of the worst environmental justice catastrophes in the country, the Tijuana River sewage crisis.
On Sept. 9, all district supervisors supported County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre’s request to implement an epidemiological study on chronic hydrogen sulfide exposure along with an economic impact study to assess ramifications to small businesses, property values, and regional tourism.
Aguirre’s request extends to identifying critical infrastructure upgrades at Saturn Boulevard, where the Tijuana River’s turbulent flow releases toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide into the air, in order to eliminate aerosolization of harmful compounds. Aguirre also called on the county to ramp up federal advocacy efforts on the crisis.
The board will also call on the state to allocate $50 million to fund projects in the Tijuana River Valley.
“We have a mandate and a responsibility to protect the public health of our constituents here in San Diego County,” said Aguirre about her follow-up proposals on Sept. 9. “Despite federal efforts and investments in infrastructure, we are not seeing… the relief that our constituents need.”
Aguirre said appropriations for the epidemiological study will return to the board for final approval.
According to Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, these actions build on a county board proposal in June that approved a “five-point Sewage Action Plan” authored by Aguirre, who was then a candidate for the first supervisorial district seat.
Aguirre’s proposal in May called for the county to: eliminate toxic hotspots, protect kids and schools, support a comprehensive health study, get economic impact data and appoint a sewage crisis commissioner.
The county approved the plan in a 3-1 vote, with Supervisor Jim Desmond voting no, on June 24.
‘Pathway toward delivering relief’
The county will initiate an epidemiological public health impact study expected to document health impacts of chronic exposure to sewage and pollution for rapid identification of resources and interventions.
The board has also agreed to:
- launch a comprehensive economic impact study, quantifying the economic toll on residents and businesses;
- begin critical infrastructure planning for urgently needed improvements at a pollution hotspot along Saturn Boulevard to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions;
- procure years-long federal advocacy services to advance solutions on the crisis;
- and request the state to allocate $50 million to be used for projects in the Tijuana River Valley.
According to materials submitted by Aguirre, the feasibility study for infrastructure upgrades at Saturn Boulevard would transfer $270,000 previously appropriated for a recreational project in the Tijuana River Valley.
Financing federal advocacy services, estimated at $130,000, intended to pull from a currently vacant arts and culture county position. The board agreed for an alternative resource following board and public comment concerns about removing the position.
Desmond, who voiced concerns about the cost of the epidemiological study beginning at a cost of $500,000 to $6 million thanked the current federal administration for its work on the crisis.
“I’ll support the item, but I want to emphasize, I don’t think the solution should only be implemented on this side of the border,” said Desmond. “The solution, I think, is also for Mexico to build the needed treatment plants and to handle the sewage that’s created there instead of just here in the United States.”
Last month, the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission said it would begin expanding treatment at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.
This month, wastewater flowing through the Tijuana River shut down Coronado beaches following that expansion. Neither the U.S. plant nor the Mexican plant, at San Antonio de los Buenos, is capturing these flows.
“You will hear that the federal administration has expedited from 25 to 35 million gallons per day of wastewater treatment,” said Aguirre. “Nothing is capturing the wastewater flows coming through our communities on a daily basis, so in the meantime, that’s why we need these urgent actions. Our residents deserve immediate progress and this item provides a clear pathway toward delivering relief, protecting public health, and restoring quality of life in the South Bay communities.”
The board’s new actions on the crisis followed a presentation by co-authors Kimberly Prather and Paula Stigler-Granados of a recent study that found a water-to-air transfer of toxic gases deriving from the Tijuana River that harm health at a regional scale.
“This validated the community voice,” said Prather, who is an atmospheric chemist and professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Stigler-Granados, an associate professor and chair of environmental health in SDSU’s School of Public Health, told the board recent surveys have found that people who inhale the hydrogen sulfide in the impacted areas regularly, five times a week or more, are more likely to have respiratory illnesses, headaches, insomnia and mental health issues.
“We have to have more understanding of ‘What are the health outcomes’,” said Stigler-Granados. “What we’ve done so far is just what we call hypothesis driven and that’s just asking people to self-report. Now we have to tie it to the hospital data, to the clinic data and we have to go door-to-door and ask people to help us with this understanding of how are they feeling, what are their symptoms, what are the doctors saying and put it all together to understand how to do an intervention because this is chronic.”
