There’s a silent disaster unfolding at the southern tip of California — and it’s been happening for years. In Imperial Beach, just a few miles south of San Diego, 50 million gallons of raw sewage, industrial chemicals, and garbage are pouring in every single day from Tijuana, Mexico. Which is resulting in closed beaches, sick residents, and an environmental catastrophe that shows no sign of ending.
The problem isn’t new. For more than a century, sewage has flowed north into the United States. But over the past few years, the situation has spiraled. Tijuana’s population has exploded, aging treatment facilities have fallen apart, and both sides of the border have failed to respond quickly enough. What used to be an intermittent issue is now a daily emergency.
Beaches in Imperial Beach have been closed for over 1,200 consecutive days. Residents are reporting migraines, rashes, breathing problems, and even gastrointestinal illness. More than 1,100 Navy recruits have gotten sick after training in the polluted water. People living near the Tijuana River, which now functions as an open sewer, are inhaling toxic air laced with hydrogen sulfide and industrial waste. There are heavy metals, DDT, arsenic, hepatitis, and E. coli in the water and it’s flowing into American communities with no serious barrier to stop it.
We’re not talking about a minor leak or a seasonal issue. This is an ongoing public health disaster. It affects not only working-class communities in South County but also areas like Coronado, a luxury destination where tourism is plummeting because the ocean smells like a toilet. Even San Diego’s mayor is starting to worry the city will be branded as the “toilet of Mexico.”
And still, the problem persists.
Yes, some efforts are underway. The U.S. government has committed $600 million to upgrade its treatment plant, and Mexico is trying to expand capacity too. But none of that will be ready anytime soon. The American upgrade is expected to take five more years. That’s five more years of closed beaches, toxic air, sick residents, and crushed local economies.
This shouldn’t be acceptable in any community, and yet here we are.
Imperial Beach is a small, working-class city. It doesn’t have the political muscle of Los Angeles or San Francisco. And perhaps that’s part of why this crisis keeps getting ignored. If raw sewage were pouring daily into Malibu or Palo Alto, would it take this long to fix?
The truth is, this is one of the most outrageous and under-addressed environmental justice issues in the country. Millions of gallons of waste are crossing an international border into U.S. neighborhoods, and residents are expected to just live with it.
There’s no excuse. Not from California officials. Not from federal agencies. Not from environmental regulators. It doesn’t matter which party is in charge — no one has solved this. No one has put enough pressure on the right people. And no one has treated this with the urgency it deserves.
We’re not talking about a future climate threat or hypothetical disaster. This is happening right now, every day, in plain sight. Families are getting sick. Businesses are collapsing. The mental toll is growing. People who once lived within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean can no longer even crack open a window.
Enough excuses. California prides itself on being a global leader in environmental policy. If it can’t solve a sewage crisis in one of its own cities, what does that leadership mean?
It’s time for real action — not more reports, not more delays, and not more people getting sick while they wait. Fix the sewage crisis. Protect the people of Imperial Beach. And stop treating this like a problem that can be kicked down the road any longer.
