South County Residents Urged to Join Health Survey on Tijuana River Sewage Impact

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas Monday asked South County residents to partake in a health assessment to determine the impact of the Tijuana River Valley sewage pollution crisis.

The program is headed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and follows Vargas’ efforts to secure resources and support from the California Air Resources Board.

“This assessment is a vital tool in addressing the public health crisis caused by sewage pollution in the Tijuana River Valley. By sharing your experiences, you are helping us gather the information we need to secure more resources and ensure the safety and well-being of our families,” Vargas said. “I strongly encourage all residents to participate and make their voices heard.”

Over the next month, volunteers will visit around 6,000 South County households to provide information from various agencies and inquire how sewage contamination has affected “residents’ health, mental well-being, and property,” a statement from Vargas’ office reads.

The survey is known as a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response and is intended to help local and federal agencies understand the community’s needs and plan a response.

Of the thousands of households visited, 210 will be randomly selected for interviews. According to the CDC, teams will arrive in small groups and will carry identification to reassure residents of their official role in this effort.

Monday’s news comes a week after the San Diego City Council approved a resolution asking for a national emergency regarding the sewage outflow at the border. The council had approved 31 years of consecutive extensions of a local state of emergency on the situation.

The largely symbolic item officially implores the federal government to make the local crisis a recognized national one, as well as asking for total funding of the Environmental Protection Agency’s infrastructure solution to the pollution.

Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, who put forward the resolution and represents San Diego’s southernmost communities such as Nestor, Egger Highlands, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, said she feared for the health of her young child during an especially egregious incident amid a recent heat wave.

In early September, high levels of noxious gases such as hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide were measured by scientific teams in the river valley and noticed by residents due to the rotten egg smell even miles from the border. Ultimately, crews from San Diego County determined there was no immediate health risk, but many residents — including Moreno — believed the crisis had reached its nadir.

“We’re left feeling like the federal government has forgotten about us,” she said during Tuesday’s council meeting.

The San Diego City Council first declared a state of emergency because of the pollution — ranging from raw sewage to industrial runoff — in 1993. Imperial Beach put out a similar declaration in 2017, followed by the county in 2023.

Since October 2018, the United States section of the International Boundary and Water Commission has catalogued more than 200 billion gallons of toxic waste coming into the United States through the Tijuana River Valley. According to a city document on Tuesday’s resolution, the commission has spent just $4 million of $40 million allocated for infrastructure maintenance at the broken South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The USIBWC was even sued by the city to make the commission comply with the Clean Water Act. A total of $300 million was appropriated through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement for the wastewater plant. In August, the USIBWC announced it will use the more than $400 million in federal funding secured by San Diego’s Congressional delegation to repair and expand the plant.

“Over the last three decades, the federal government has said [the people of the South Bay] don’t matter enough to take action,” City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said. “I wish this was one we could solve on our own, but we need the federal government to get this done.”

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, announced a bill in early September intended to consolidate all infrastructure project efforts in the Tijuana and New river watersheds under the Environmental Protection Agency. The intent is to avoid more of the decades of red tape and get the project done, they said.

City News Service contributed to this article.