Major Victory: Real Progress on the Tijuana Sewage Crisis

Media
Sep 2
2 min read

For decades, our community has suffered from the Tijuana Sewage Crisis. Families couldn’t enjoy the beach because of closures, the stench from pollution carried into our neighborhoods, and even our U.S. Navy SEALs—who train in these waters—were getting sick. Our coastline, one of San Diego’s greatest treasures, was being destroyed while politicians looked the other way.

That has finally changed.

A few months ago, I met with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and told him firsthand about the dire need to fix this crisis. I urged him to make it a top priority, and I’m grateful to say that he listened. In just 100 days, the Federal Government, the EPA, and the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission delivered a 10 million-gallon-per-day expansion at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant—a project once expected to take years.

This is a major step toward a permanent, 100% solution.

I’ve been very vocal about the need to tackle this issue, but I also want to thank you—our community—for being just as vocal. Your persistence and advocacy made Washington pay attention. Together, we turned decades of excuses into real action.

Thanks to the leadership of Administrator Zeldin, the EPA, and the IBWC, San Diegans are finally seeing progress that will make our community safer and healthier. This expansion will reduce sewage flowing into our waters, protect the health of our SEALs and residents, and help restore our coastline.

Here’s a video I took about four months ago showing just how dire this crisis was at the time. It’s a stark reminder of what we’ve been up against—and why this progress matters so much.

The Tijuana Sewage Crisis: America’s Forgotten Environmental Disaster

This is a major victory—but it’s only the beginning. I will keep fighting until this crisis is solved once and for all and San Diegans can enjoy clean, safe beaches every day.

Thank you for standing with me. Together, we are proving that when our community speaks up, we get results.