International Pollution

Pollution flowing in the Pacific Ocean from Tijuana to San Diego has been a major problem for over sixty years. Large amounts of wastewater and untreated sewage are dumped into the ocean in Mexico every single day. The Northern Current of the Pacific carries the polluted water onto many San Diego County beaches, and compromises the health of all San Diego residents. This issue also greatly affects the fishing industry in both Mexico and the United States. The sewage and other pollution dumped into the Pacific Ocean by Mexico is destroying San Diego's beaches and fishing industry, and most importantly, threatening the health of all San Diego residents.
The lack of a major sewage system and water treatment plants in Tijuana allows millions of gallons of untreated sewage to flow directly into the ocean every day. Tijuana is estimated to produce over fifty million gallons of sewage a day, while the main treatment plant's daily capacity is only seventeen million. Another twenty five million gallons is treated at the International Water Treatment plant. These plants aren't enough to clean all of Tijuana's wastewater, and allow the remaining eight million gallons of untreated sewage to run straight into the ocean every day.
One of the biggest causes of this problem is all of the families living in shacks with no sewage system at all. All of their waste flows into the Tijuana River, and is carried to the ocean without being cleaned, especially when it rains. All of the trash, sewage, and chemicals in the streets of Tijuana are washed into the Pacific when it rains, and flow north into San Diego County.
"The Tijuana River poses a significant threat to public health and environmental health in the U.S.-Mexico border region of southwestern San Diego County. The river, originating in Mexico where nearly three-fourths of its watershed is located, flows through the city of Tijuana, Mexico, before reaching the ocean in Imperial Beach, California, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Millions of gallons of sewage, toxic chemicals, garbage, and animal manure are flushed into the river when it rains. After rain events, up to 600 million gallons of contaminated water cascade out of the Tijuana River per day, creating a plume of sewage and other hazardous contaminants covering 40 square miles of coastline. As a result, Heal the Bay named Imperial Beach one of the two most polluted beaches in California for 2004."(WildCoast).
Another way that Mexico pollutes our ocean is an underwater sewage pipe that reaches out two miles into the Pacific, and pours unfiltered waste out all day and night. This pipe creates a plume of pollution, that drifts north into the U.S..
The problems that all of this pollution cause are very major. The bacteria levels in San Diego's beach water have been above safe levels more times in the last five years than ever before. Imperial Beach, Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, and Pacific Beach have all been closed record breaking numbers due to the massive amounts of pollution coming from Mexico. In 2004, Pacific Beach recorded 121 days of water advisory due to high levels of bacteria. Not only does the dirty water pose as a threat to humans, it also can sicken fish that are caught and sold at local markets.
Swimming or surfing in polluted water can make a person very sick. Common symptoms of sickness caused by bacteria in the ocean are very similar to those of a common cold, and can be, but are not limited to coughing, headaches, stomach flu. Also, eating fish that have been infected by the contaminated water can cause illness in humans including E. Coli, and Salmonella.
This continuing problem must come to an end. Attempts to handle the large amount of wastewater produced by Tijuana have all failed.
"On the U.S. side of the border, city of San Diego and federal officials spent close $500 million on a border sewage treatment plant that is unable to treat the volume of sewage flowing out of Tijuana. Now, elected officials such as Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, advocate spending between $150 million and $600 million in federal funds to subsidize the development of a private sewage treatment plant run by Bajagua, a company with no experience managing Mexican wastewater. Filner has not explained how an eastern Tijuana wastewater plant will treat the millions of gallons of raw sewage that gushes out of the colonias in the western part of the city into the Tijuana River."(Dedina).
Hiring an unexperienced private company to handle this will not work. The plan that they came up with only works with half of the city's wastewater. The western half of the city will continue to pollute the Tijuana River, which runs into the Pacific. Also, a private company could charge extremely high rates, and prevent use of the treatment plant completely.
It is estimated that over one million people in Tijuana do not have any sort of a sewage system, and all of their waste flows into the Tijuana River. According to Wildcoast.net the solution is clear.
"We must invest in improved infrastructure in the U.S. to collect cross-border sewage flows. The current diversion system that carries cross-border flows to be at the International Wastewater Treatment Plant treated is only effective during light flows. We must expand the capacity to divert and treat river flows beyond the current 12 mgd (million gallons/day) to support the heavier cross-border flows that routinely contaminate the Tijuana Estuary and beaches of Imperial Beach and Coronado."(Wildcoast).
We must aid Tijuana in the design and construction of a low-technology sewage system. If all of the wastewater could be collected and discharged miles offshore, the pollution problems would disappear.