The Tijuana River pollution has become a significant issue that affects many living in that area. This crisis has been going for decades, but it’s continued to worsen and affect people in the area even more. The contaminated water brings odors, health risks, and worries for the environment. These are the main impacts on our communities who live close to the river, such as Imperial Beach and Coronado. And have to deal with the polluted water. It is important to raise awareness to push for a real change.
People who are living near the pollution area have been impacted in many ways. Many residents have strong odors from the contaminated river, especially after it has rained. According to recent reports by the San Diego Coastkeeper, “Every day, millions of gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste, and trash flow across the U.S/Mexico border, impacting 20 miles of international coastline and thousands of people.”
All this toxic waste has caused residents to want to stay indoors more often. Natalya Sosa ‘29, a CCHS student who lives near the river, shared, “It often smells fishy and like sewer water whenever driving near Imperial.”
Raising awareness about how polluted the Tijuana river is essential because people don’t realize how it affects communities. To raise awareness, you can start posting information on social media, and sharing personal stories from the residents. The more people learn and hear about these horrible conditions families have been experiencing, the more support they will get to try to get a solution.
The Tijuana River poses numerous health risks to the residents living close to the river. This is due to the sewage, bacteria, and toxic chemicals that raid its waters. Residents are exposed to airborne contaminants and orders. Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference reports that the most frequent symptoms were headaches, runny noses, eye irritation, and coughing.
This pollution also creates major environmental concerns that affect the ecosystem. Because of the sewage, trash, bacteria, and toxic chemicals, it harms fish and birds that depend on clean water to survive. The polluted water also flows to the Pacific Ocean which threatens many ecosystems.
sydney • Dec 10, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Really interesting topic I like how you expressed concerns and provided data.
Leon Benham • Nov 22, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Despite grandiose announcements in the 1st quarter Public Update by the EPA, this administration has failed to identified the projects of the 100% permanent solution. Simply put our EPA IBWC leadership has utterly failed protecting our country by allowing sewage to contaminate local US communities at the border.
EPA Lee Zeldin, Chad Macintosh failed to proof test the USMCA Comprehensive Plan developed by the Biden and Gavin Newsom EPA. This tragic plan is a clear use of the Auto Pen to the detriment of our communities while allowing Mexico to dump sewage into the United States.
Our current EPA and IBWC leadership failed to review the well thought out Trump EPA plan called 2019 Tijuana River Diversion Study (Arcadis Report) and compare it to the Biden/Gavin Newsom plan. Arcadis are world leaders in environmental engineering firms while Gavin Newsoms plan are NGO profiteers with no engineering experience.
The Trump plan secured $300 million under USMCA trade agreement from congress to keep all Tijuana sewage in Mexico and protect U.S. waters.
What you may not know is that the Biden administration—working with Governor Gavin Newsom and Mexican NGO special-interest groups—derailed the Trump plan and replaced it with a disastrous alternative. The current EPA proposal will increase Mexican sewage dumped into U.S. territorial waters by over 600%, directly offshore of the new SEAL Team training facility in Coronado.
In 2022, local U.S. citizens who opposed this plan were blocked from attending California State Lands Commission which sponsored EPA stakeholder meetings. While US Citizens were blocked from attendance Mexican NGO representatives were given access and influence.
This move ignored the Arcadis plan congress approved, which protected U.S. communities and aligned with USMCA requirements of Arcadis plan.
Please stop Lee Zeldin from unintentionally advancing the Biden/Newsom plan. He has not been shown how it differs from the 2019 Arcadis solution, which would have ended beach closures and kept contamination inside Mexico, instead of dumping the sewage into the United States.
If the Biden/Newsom plan continues, Mexico will send all sewage from Tijuana to waters of San Diego a 600% increase.
We urgently ask our government leaders to halt funding for the Biden/Newsom USMCA plan and investigate why your original solution was abandoned.
Our communities want one outcome: return Mexico-sourced sewage back to Mexico for treatment, as the 2019 Trump administration intended.
Leon Benham
Citizens for Coastal Conservancy
jake • Nov 21, 2025 at 11:58 AM
This is a serious issue and I like how you took notice to it