Aguirre: County Should Pay to Treat the Whole Tijuana River
- Media
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
We’ve been wondering how the county would spend $80 million per year on the sewage-plagued Tijuana River under a proposed half-cent sales tax measure proposed by the San Diego County Supervisors.
On Friday, Supervisor Paloma Aguirre (the issue’s main champion and former mayor of sewage-blighted Imperial Beach) put out her proposed plan.
Main message? Convert a large chunk of that money into a bond (a big loan governments often take out to finance expensive projects) and have the county build a system that treats the entire Tijuana River. It’s also known as the “river diversion” project and Aguirre’s been pushing for it since she was mayor.
That basically involves running the river on the United States side through a new treatment plant (called advanced primary treatment) so that raw sewage doesn’t make its way to the Pacific Ocean (and Imperial Beach). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranked river diversion as the third priority project (out of three) to do on the United States side, largely because it’s expensive to do, as our MacKenzie Elmer has previously reported. But, at the time of the EPA’s study in 2021, it was the only option that would keep the beaches of Imperial Beach open the longest.
Now with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from a new sales tax-supported bond (if voters approve it), the county might just have the bones to build it.
However, it could also mean the county would be on the hook for taking care of such a treatment plant. If the federally-owned one at the U.S.-Mexico border that already struggles to clean Tijuana sewage (and sometimes river water) is an example, we know that’s a huge undertaking with many legal battles.
Morning Report | July 13, 2026 | Voice of San Diego
So Who Pays to Keep the Ocean Healthy?
I've spent my life in the water—as a child, a surfer, a competitive swimmer, and a lifeguard.
I've seen the ocean at its most beautiful.
I've also watched Imperial Beach and Silver Strand slowly become known more for closures than for clean water.
For decades, pollution from the Tijuana River has continued to contaminate beaches that generations grew up enjoying. The problem has persisted through changing administrations, studies, promises, and funding discussions.
Meanwhile, the ocean continues to bear the cost.
We can send people to the Moon.
We can explore Mars.
But somehow, we still can't solve a problem that has been poisoning one of our nation's coastlines for decades.
Why are…