DATE:
October 8, 2024
13
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
DECLARING THE TIJUANA RIVER VALLEY AN EPA SUPERFUND SITE TO UNLOCK STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDS FOR TOXIC REMEDIATION AND CLEAN-UP (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
For nearly eight decades, the Tijuana River Valley has been drowning in toxic chemicals, industrial waste, and raw sewage flowing across the border, wreaking havoc on our health, environment, and economy. Despite recent progress on infrastructure and binational cooperation, the hazardous waste continues to flow and at great cost to the public. Public health is at risk. Our ecosystems are suffering. The regional economy is feeling the strain.
While immediate repairs-like wastewater pumps in Tijuana and upgrades to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant-are critical, they simply aren't happening fast enough. And, even when completed, infrastructure alone won't undo the impact of decades of relentless toxic pollution that includes heavy metals and hazardous chemicals, some of which have been banned in the United States such as DDT, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), as well as other cancer-causing industrial compounds like hexavalent chromium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)iii.
Everyone deserves access to clean water and healthy open spaces free from dangerous contaminants. Stopping the sewage is an important first step but cleaning up the hazardous waste in the river valley and estuary will be one of the most daunting environmental justice challenges of our times.
What is a Superfund Site?
I'm calling on the County of San Diego to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate the 6-mile portion of the Lower Tijuana River Valley as a "Superfund" site to unlock federal funding and clean-up the toxic conditions. The Superfund program requires the nation's most toxic hazardous waste sites to be identified and cleaned up. The Superfund designation provides authority and funding to rem...
Click here for full text