The Trump administration has rediscovered the problems with yet another unwelcome export from Mexico: raw sewage. The Tijuana River has been overwhelmed by the sewage rushing along the international border through San Diego County, ending at Imperial Beach on the U.S. side for years. Now, in addition to being a festering environmental problem, it’s becoming a national security concern.
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Global warming activists claim the problem of untreated raw sewage ruining the Tijuana River is due to climate change, but anyone who’s followed this issue knows it’s been a problem for decades, well before the climate catastrophists began their grift. Tijuana’s growth in recent years has overwhelmed the city’s archaic sewage system. It’s time for more tweaks to the system, TJ.
Surfers, anglers, and other water enthusiasts have been ordered out of this section of the Pacific Ocean for more than three years.
Where’s @GavinNewsom ?Lifeguards in San Diego are ordering people out of the water on the 4th of July due to sewage contamination from Tijuana, Mexico. Beaches have been closed for over 900 consecutive days! pic.twitter.com/0nCHuRgVgt
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) July 5, 2024
Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said something must be done now to stop the sewage and save the environment around Imperial Beach.
Very sad indeed, Imperial Beach is not swimmable, sometimes Ocean Beach. The United States has done nothing about this for about 50 years. Thank you Lee Zeldin for making it happen. @epaleezeldin https://t.co/hWt4hde3yR
— 🇺🇸Sheri (@faithfulnonna) April 5, 2025
Zeldin said at a presser recently that “Mexico needs to fulfill its part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused — their people caused.“ He continued, “They cannot view this as a U.S. problem, just because their contamination reached U.S. soil.”
The water is so contaminated that the Navy SEALs, who usually train next door in Coronado, have had to move some of their training to cleaner waters in north San Diego County. More than 1,100 SEAL team candidates were overcome with gastrointestinal illness over the past five years believed to be caused by the pollution. You can read more about that in a special VIP article I wrote nearby.
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Since 2017, 130 billion — with a big B — gallons of sewage from Tijuana have flowed into the river into the Pacific Ocean, ruining this recreation area for years.
In the 1980s, San Diego radio listeners heard KFMB host Bill Ballance amuse and scandalize listeners with his oft-repeated observation that the biggest exports from Mexico were “nutty chunk raw sewage and illegal aliens.” The U.S. Marine veteran and early “shock jock” in Southern California was before his time. He’d be shaken to the core about the SEALs being sickened by the sewage.
In 1980, surfer, outdoorsman, and Imperial Beach Mayor Brian Bilbray hopped on top of a bulldozer and moved enough dirt to redirect a part of the “Tia Juana” River, as it was called then, to save a part of his city from the effects of the raw sewage.
The bulldozer incident made the news. Watch this old story by KFMB-TV reporter Jesse Macias.
Note all of the protesters sitting on the contaminated sands and wading in the water. Yech.
Bilbray said at the time, “I’d rather have a little incident now than a large one when a child gets sick with hepatitis. In the long run, we’ll get the Mexicans’ cooperation. The big thing is getting their attention.” Oh, did he ever.
Things improved somewhat with Mexico improving their sewage treatment facilities, but they can’t keep up with population growth.
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Related: Here’s the Perfect Solution for Sending Joe Biden’s Hordes of Illegal Voters Back Home
At the time, Bilbray was young and unmarried. Now, he says, “My granddaughter is a third generation sewage kid.”
The waters off Imperial Beach have been closed for the last three years because of the billions of gallons of sewage thathave poured into the U.S.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has shown no leadership on this issue. The Biden administration did nothing. And now the nutty chunk sewage political football is squarely in Trump’s hands. Ick.
When Donald Trump was in his first stint in office this wasn’t the issue it is now. I don’t know about you, but everyday it seems the Trump administration 47 is hit with yet another old problem that nobody’s fixed.
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