Earlier this year, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors declared a public health crisis in the Tijuana River Valley (TRV) due to the sewage, trash, and chemicals that pollute our border area, beaches and impact the health outcomes of those living on both sides of the U.S. Mexico border. Those living and working in the area already face police brutality and are regularly terrorized by border patrol and ice. The last thing these residents need is to endure poor air quality, sewage leaks, waste from industrial plants, breeding sources for disease-carrying mosquitoes, plastic pollution, heavy metals, flesh eating bacteria, and trash.

Our ocean knows no borders. When it rains, millions of gallons of untreated sewage, dangerous chemicals, heavy metals, and thousands of pounds of trash travel up and down our coast making Imperial Beach the most polluted beach in the entire state of California and possibly in this entire country. Last year Imperial Beach was closed for 295 days due to the pollutants in the water.

This summer, we began holding cleanups along the Tijuana River, risking our own health, in order to make the Tijuana River Valley region more habitable. We've been joined by Umoja San Diego, East County BIPOC, PSL, EkBalam, Sunrise San Diego, We Stand United SD, Essence of Earth, Skyline Community Garden, and North County for Racial Justice.

We held a protest in front of Congressional representative Juan Vargas’s office, staged a rally and sit-in at the Tijuana River Valley Regional Campground earlier this week, and are holding a protest today from our San Diego County Administrative building to the EPA.

San Diego County hasn't taken the actions needed to appropriately address the crisis they declared. For the past few months, we’ve been pushing for our county supervisors to close the Tijuana River Valley Regional Campground and present the EPA with projects to restore the valley. 

Nora Vargas, the district supervisor for the region the Tijuana River Valley is in, needs to close the campground and present the EPA with projects to restore the valley. 

Gavin Newsom, our state governor, needs to declare a state of emergency, so we can deploy the resources we need to restore the valley.

Joe Biden, needs to pressure the EPA to double the current Tijuana River Valley budget from $300 million to $600 million to restore the valley.

The current $300 million budget isn't enough. 

It is projected that it will cost $300 million to solely remove the toxins that are currently in the river. It is projected to cost an additional $300 million to prevent further waste from entering our water ways. 

 This is why we are demanding the budget is doubled from $300 to $600 million.