DATE:
September 30, 2025
15
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
DEMANDING A COMPREHENSIVE CONTAMINATION ANALYSIS OF THE TIJUANA RIVER (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
For nearly eighty years, the Tijuana River Valley has absorbed raw sewage, industrial waste, pesticides, heavy metals, and hazardous chemicals carried across the border. These pollutants have settled into the soil, wetlands, and estuary, creating a toxic legacy that endangers public health, fragile ecosystems, and the regional economy.
The Urgent Need for a Comprehensive Contamination Analysis
San Diego cannot secure Superfund designation for the Tijuana River Valley without a robust, up-to-date contamination record. In 2024, regional leaders petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take that step, a move that could unlock billions in federal dollars for cleanup. Instead of acting, the EPA relied on a cursory "desk review" of decades-old data and declined to conduct new sampling. That decision left the region without the scientific evidence EPA itself requires to justify designation.
Prior studies over the last twenty years have detected dangerous toxins in the Tijuana River Valley, but they were piecemeal, dated, and never designed to provide the comprehensive picture needed for cleanup. Every day, more than 50 million gallons of contaminated wastewater surge across the border, carrying banned pesticides like DDT, carcinogens such as PCBs and PAHs, and heavy metals including lead and arsenic. Yet no agency has ever undertaken a full analysis of what is embedded in the water, soil, and sediment.
Without that baseline, San Diego is locked out of the very federal tools meant for crises of this magnitude. A comprehensive contamination analysis is not optional, it is the linchpin to proving the case, securing Superfund designation, and beginning the long-delayed cleanup our communities deserve.
The Missing Piece: Direct Analysis of Soil, Water, and Sediment
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