This past week, San Diego has seen a bit of a threat to its year-round summer. The storm that came this last week poured over 2 inches of rain down across the region, a rare occurrence compared to recent years. The precipitation does bring great benefits for the area, such as fertile farmland and cleaner air quality. But due to pollution from Tijuana and run-off contaminants, it's recommended that you wait 72 hours after a storm before swimming or surfing in the ocean.
When rain falls in Tijuana, runoff tainted with sewage, animal waste, toxins, and bacteria enter the Tijuana River, which ultimately drains into the ocean of the OB area. In September the San Diego Water Board sued the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), claiming it is violating the Clean Water Act by not monitoring or stopping untreated waste flowing to the ocean. The IBWC owns these pumps and opponents believe that they have a responsibility to fix these easily-overwhelmed pumps.
"The Mexican section of the IBWC told the U.S. section Tuesday that a massive amount of sewage - an estimated 6 to 7 million gallons per day - is flowing into the Tijuana River Valley and into the Pacific Ocean as a result of the break, the U.S. section said," remarks NBC 7 San Diego.
The lawsuit takes most of its girth in preventative care to make sure this does not become a continuous issue, rather than cleaning up the storm's current mess. It calls for the installation of sewage capturing infrastructure near the border that would help to contain these contaminations. In the big picture, we must realize that taking care of our environment should be our number one priority. Without clean water, surplus food, and a set of natural resources, we cannot debate religion, politics, or anything else that seems to run the political sphere.
