Opinion: Mexico Should Pay for Sewage Repairs, Not County Taxpayers

Oscar Romo walks among debris that has been captured by a trash boom installed in the Tijuana River at the border near where the river enters the United States from Tijuana, Mexico in San Diego, California | April 8, 2026 | AP Photo/Gregory Bull | Click image to enlarge

This opinion was published in The San Diego Union-Tribune in response to "Fight to pass Measure B, the countywide sales tax increase, heats up" on September 16, 2026.

Read the article first. It's very informative.

Here's the opinion:

There may be some reason to vote for Measure B in November. But the provision to fund the cleanup of the Tijuana River in the U.S. is a waste of money. Whatever anyone does to remediate the toxic waste in the river in the U.S. is cancelled by the unrelenting, uncontrolled flow of toxic sludge coming from Mexico.

Until Mexico installs appropriate sewage treatment and sewage street and pipe infrastructure in Tijuana, money expended on this issue on the U.S. side is tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig. Big corporations with factories in Tijuana are not regulated and freely dump toxic waste into the Tijuana River in Mexico.

The question remains, if your neighbor was flushing their toilet into your yard, wouldn’t you have something to say? No one is talking to Mexico.

— John H. Borja, Chula Vista 

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