EPA demands Mexico act to end long-standing Tijuana River sewage crisis

The caput of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday that Mexico indispensable enactment to halt the monolithic travel of sewage and toxic chemicals from the Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean disconnected the seashore of confederate California, an biology occupation that has existed for decades contempt the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to code it.

Lee Zeldin’s publically stated request came a time aft helium met with Mexico’s Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena successful San Diego to sermon the contamination occupation that has often closed beaches successful confederate California and sickened U.S. Navy SEALs who bid successful the water, among different people.

Raw sewage from Mexico has been polluting San Diego waters, land, and aerial for decades.

There are galore facets to what specifically needs to hap adjacent to extremity this situation erstwhile and for all. These actions indispensable beryllium AGGRESSIVELY pursued with EXTREME urgency. pic.twitter.com/eARavdo1IF

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) April 22, 2025

Bárcena asserted Monday that Mexico has already made an “enormous effort” to code the problem, but acknowledged determination is much enactment to beryllium done.

During an Earth Day sojourn to San Diego County, Zeldin recognized that Mexico wants to cooperate with the United States to lick the problem, but nevertheless reserved immoderate blunt words for the Mexican government.

“Happy Earth Day. There’s obscurity much important for each of america to beryllium than close here,” the EPA head said astatine an open-air property league adjacent to the Tijuana River.

“The issues that person been facing residents successful this country for decades are issues of frustration, despair, disappointment, surely information arsenic good to instrumentality a situation that has lingered for excessively agelong and yet bring it to a agelong overdue resolution,” said Zeldin, who connected Tuesday visited San Diego County’s South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which acts arsenic a secondary installation for the attraction of wastewater from Mexico.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the works is successful disrepair.

Accompanied by members of the U.S. Congress from some the Republican and Democratic parties, the EPA main said that the bureau helium leads wants to marque definite that “the way guardant is 1 of max collaboration and utmost urgency to extremity a situation that should person ended a agelong clip ago.”

With respect to his gathering with Bárcena, Zeldin said that the situation curate spoke astir the enactment Mexico is already doing to combat the h2o contamination occupation and told reporters it was “clear” the Mexican authorities “wants to person a beardown collaborative relationship” with the United States.

“She would often talk connected behalf of the Mexican president astir however the caller Mexican president wants to person a adjacent collaboration with the United States and the U.S. president to yet resoluteness this contented and I invited that collaboration,” helium said.

In the meeting, Bárcena and Zeldin some communicated “the large commitment” of their respective presidents to execute a punctual solution to the h2o contamination occupation successful the Tijuana River. (X)

The EPA head said that Bárcena declared that Mexico is “fully committed” to doing its portion to resoluteness the issue.

Zeldin said that “over the people of the adjacent 24 hours,” the United States would make a “comprehensive database of everything we judge with afloat assurance is going to extremity the crisis.”

“We don’t privation the 70% solution oregon the 90% solution. … We each request to beryllium connected the aforesaid leafage connected the 100% solution,” helium said.

“… It’s going to beryllium important that Mexico documents everything that they are consenting to judge and travel done connected that’s connected our list, oregon not, truthful that we cognize whether oregon not Mexico is committed to the afloat database that we cognize volition afloat lick this issue,” Zeldin said.

He added that “Mexico inactive needs to obligate” US $88 cardinal of $144 cardinal it committed successful 2022 to walk connected addressing the Tijuana River sewage problem.

“The degradation of Tijuana River is thing that radical privation dealt with close now,” Zeldin said.

“… Mexico needs to fulfill its portion successful cleaning up the contamination that they caused, [that] their radical caused. They cannot presumption this arsenic a U.S. occupation conscionable due to the fact that their contamination reached U.S. soil. We request Mexico to not conscionable perpetrate to each the projects that volition halt the travel [of sewage and chemicals into the Pacific Ocean] but … [also] perpetrate to [a] last cleanup,” helium said.

Zeldin didn’t accidental however the Trump medication would respond if Mexico failed to enactment successful a mode that definitively solved the problem.

“We’re going to … [see] whether oregon not Mexico is going to bash its portion to resoluteness it, and past we’ll spell from there, arsenic acold arsenic strategy and tactics,” helium said.

In an interrogation with Fox News connected Tuesday, Zeldin said Mexico needs to “finish operation to divert what is 10 cardinal gallons [of wastewater] per time from the Tijuana River vale to the Tijuana dam.”

Over the past 5 years, much than 100 cardinal gallons of sewage and discarded person reportedly tally into the Tijuana River Valley. (@usibwc/X)

The database of things Mexico needs to bash connected its broadside of the borderline “goes on,” the EPA main said.

In a station to X connected Tuesday, Zeldin wrote:

“There is lone ONE acceptable timeline to implicit ALL projects connected the Mexico broadside and U.S. broadside to END the situation of earthy sewage entering the U.S. from Mexico: AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!”

At his property conference, the EPA main declared:

“There’s nary mode that we are going to basal earlier the radical of California and inquire them to person much patience and conscionable carnivore with each of america arsenic we spell done the adjacent 10 oregon 20 oregon 30 years of being stuck successful 12 feet of earthy sewage and not getting anywhere.”

Why is the Tijuana River truthful polluted? 

The Associated Press reported connected Tuesday that “more than 100 cardinal gallons of earthy sewage laden with concern chemicals and trash” has made its mode into the Tijuana River since 2018.

The culprits? Ineffective wastewater attraction plants successful the borderline metropolis of Tijuana, wherever the colonisation and manufacture person grown importantly successful caller decades.

“The city’s maturation has acold outpaced the existing sewage attraction plants, and inadequate and breached facilities spew discarded into the river, polluting the h2o and aerial successful Imperial Beach and different [California] communities adjacent the border,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The 195-kilometer-long Tijuana River crosses into confederate California adjacent the seashore and runs done U.S. Navy-owned onshore earlier flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

In summation to giving acute gastrointestinal illnesses to much than 1,000 Navy SEALs successful caller years, the contamination has “sickened not lone swimmers, surfers and lifeguards but besides schoolchildren, Border Patrol agents and others who bash not adjacent spell successful the water,” AP reported.

A February study released by the Department of Defense recovered that 1,168 Navy unit stationed astatine NAB Coronado, which is situated betwixt San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, had fallen sick from polluted stream water.

“Scientists accidental the sewage is vaporized erstwhile it foams up and enters the aerial radical breathe,” the quality bureau added.

Zeldin said that immoderate $653 cardinal has been allocated to addressing the contamination occupation successful the past 5 years. He accused Mexico of being excessively dilatory to implicit projects it has committed to carrying out.

Matthew Tejada, elder vice president of biology wellness for the Natural Resources Defense Fund, a New York-based biology NGO, told the Los Angeles Times that commitments from Zeldin and different U.S. officials to lick the occupation dependable good. However, helium asserted that achieving them volition beryllium hard owed to fund and staffing cuts successful the U.S. government.

“It volition beryllium an absorbing instrumentality for EPA to execute precisely those sorts of outcomes portion they are internally tearing down the precise unit and systems they request to really marque those changes happen,” Tejada said.

What is Mexico doing to mitigate the problem? 

During remarks she made astatine the Mexican Consulate successful San Diego connected Monday night, Environment Minister Bárcena described her gathering with Zeldin arsenic “very positive.”

“I judge we were capable to get astatine a communal diagnosis [and] we person precise circumstantial mechanisms to lick these problems,” she said.

Bárcena said a batch of advancement has already been made, specifically touting what she called Mexico’s “enormous effort” to halt the travel of contaminated h2o into the Pacific Ocean.

“Mexico has conscionable finished the San Antonio de Los Buenos works [in Tijuana] with an concern of astir $38 cardinal to dainty 800 liters [of wastewater] per second, but it’s not enough,” she said.

“And for that reason, 1 of the commitments is that the United States besides implicit [the upgrade to] the [South Bay] International Water Treatment Plant, which is successful San Ysidro,” Bárcena said.

An upgrade of the San Antonio de Los Buenos works was precocious completed and the installation is present operating astatine afloat capacity, which should assistance mitigate the cross-border contamination problem.

Tijuana River cleanup takes large measurement forward

In a connection issued connected Tuesday, the Mexican Environment Ministry (Semarnat) said that caller sewer lines person besides been installed successful Tijuana “to forestall the discharge of earthy sewage astatine beaches successful California.”

Semarnat acknowledged that immoderate sewer projects person not yet been completed and noted that enactment to rehabilitate pumping stations and the Arturo Herrera and La Morita h2o attraction plants is besides ongoing.

According to the ministry, Bárcena told Zeldin that projects that are already underway successful Mexico volition beryllium expedited with a presumption to completion successful 2027.

Semarnat noted that the completion of the upgrade and enlargement of the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant was scheduled for 2029, but said the EPA main committed to accelerating its operation truthful that it is acceptable “before 2027.”

“Both officials [Bárcena and Zeldin] expressed the large committedness of their presidents, Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump, to execute a punctual solution [to the h2o contamination problem] for the payment of residents connected some sides of the border,” the ministry said.

What comes next? 

In a station to X connected Monday, Bárcena said she and Zeldin “agreed to reenforce our associated actions … to accelerate the projects to code the sanitation of the Tijuana River for the well-being of our communities.”

Semarnat said successful its connection that Mexico and the United States had reached a fig of agreements aimed astatine combating the travel of sewage into the Tijuana River. They see that:

• The Mexican and U.S. commissioners of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) volition promptly conscionable to “review and accelerate compliance of infinitesimal 328,” successful which the IBWC outlines a scope of sanitation infrastructure projects successful Tijuana and San Diego.
• A gathering of the North American Development Bank volition beryllium urgently convened to “expedite the execution of cardinal projects for the cleaning-up of the Tijuana River basin that are financed by the bank.”
• “Mexico volition springiness precedence to the rerouting of treated h2o from the Arturo Herrera and La Morita plants to the Abelardo Rodríguez reservoir, avoiding its discharge into the Tijuana River.
• The United States volition bring guardant by 2 years the completion day for the enlargement of the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant.
• The attraction capableness of the South Bay installation volition beryllium “temporarily” accrued from 25 cardinal gallons per time to 35 cardinal gallons per day, adjacent arsenic the upgrade/expansion of the installation is taking place.
• Mexico and the United States volition “maintain transparent method and organization collaboration, avoiding disinformation oregon unilateral statements, with afloat respect for the sovereignty of some countries.”

The EPA’s “comprehensive list” of things that request to beryllium done to code the binational h2o contamination situation had not been released by aboriginal Wednesday afternoon.

Mexico and the United States are attempting to lick the long-running Tijuana River contamination occupation astatine a clip erstwhile the U.S. is pressuring its confederate neighbour to present the h2o it owes nether the presumption of a 1944 bilateral h2o treaty.

Mexico presently owes the United States astir 1.5 cardinal cubic meters of water, and is supposedly to present it by precocious October — an seemingly intolerable task owed to wide drought that has been peculiarly terrible successful the bluish states that borderline the U.S.

With reports from AP and Los Angeles Times