A wealthy Southern California town has been deemed the “stinkiest beach in America” due to the sewage crisis.
Wendy Fry, reporter Mercury NewsHe said Tuesday was the quintessential beach day in San Diego, home to the thriving cities of La Jolla and Del Mar.
While the beaches were packed, Fry said the shoreline was eerily deserted.
Guilty? More than 100 billion gallons of raw sewage from Mexico’s Tijuana River dumped into the Pacific Ocean in the last five years.
This untreated sewage has become a recurring nightmare for Imperial Beach, a small coastal town of about 26,000 residents.
A wealthy Southern California town has been dubbed the “smelliest beach in America” due to its sewage crisis
While the beaches are packed in San Diego, the coast, specifically in Imperial Beach, has been eerily deserted. The culprit? More than 100 billion gallons of raw sewage from Mexico’s Tijuana River, dumped into the Pacific Ocean over the past five years.
Pollution periodically forces the closure of beaches and the smell can be unbearable.
“Imagine opening a manhole cover and just diving into it, and that’s what it’s like to hang out on the beach now,” Imperial Beach resident Wilson Howard told Fry.
“(The smell) wakes you up at night. That’s how strong it is,” Cara Knapp, who lives on the oceanfront Seacoast Drive and has the beach as her backyard, told Fry.
Imperial Beach, once a popular surfing destination, has been the victim of waves of sewage washing ashore for decades.
“They call us ‘the stinkiest beach.’ Who wants to buy a house (a million dollars or more) and be called ‘the stinkiest beach in America’?” Knapp said.
The wastewater problem has also contributed to the current problem of inequality and the large gap between socioeconomic classes.
Untreated sewage has become a recurring nightmare for Imperial Beach, a small coastal city of about 26,000 residents.
A significant portion of raw sewage originates in Tijuana’s impoverished neighborhoods, neighborhoods where residents lack adequate housing due to poverty, according to Fay Crevoshay, communications and policy director for the international nonprofit WILDCOAST.
These communities build makeshift homes using scrap materials such as garage doors and tires, and often lack connection to public sanitation systems.
Its wastewater flows directly into a canal that eventually reaches the United States, he explains.
When it rains, this canal overflows, carrying trash and sewage directly into the working-class communities of Southern California’s South Bay.
Pictured: A map of San Diego beaches most affected by sewage.
“I like how in the United States they describe these communities as ‘underserved.’ In Mexico, they say ‘unserved.’ There’s no service. There’s no service at all,” Crevoshay said.
Researchers say toxins in wastewater pose a threat to public health, which is why Imperial Beach is closed most of the time.
Governor Gavin Newsom has refused to declare a state of emergency without explanation, according to The voice of San Diego.
Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Padilla and Assemblyman David Alvarez, who holds a district in South County, want the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step in.
“They just need to show people that they care, because right now, with the exception of David Alvarez, our state assemblyman, and Steve Padilla, our state senator,” said Serge Dedina, executive director of WILDCOAST and former mayor from Imperial Beach.
“We feel pretty abandoned by our state elected officials on this issue and also by our state agencies.”
Despite Imperial Beach experiencing more than 700 consecutive days of beach closures, residents continue to endure the daily effects of pollution.
Baron Partlow, one of the affected residents, started ‘Stop the Poop’, an organization that has been outspoken about the difficulties these residents face.
“You can smell it all night, you can’t open the windows, you can’t close them because it still comes in, you can eat because it makes you nauseous, you can’t sleep, it’s horrible,” Partlow told CBS 8. San Diego
Last week, South Bay residents gathered at Coral Gate Community Park to share their frustrations and find solutions to the Tijuana River Valley sewage smell in their neighborhoods.
Baron Partlow, one of the affected residents, started ‘Stop the Poop’, an organization that has been outspoken about the difficulties these residents face.
“You can smell it all night, you can’t open the windows, you can’t close them because it’s still coming in, you can eat because it makes you nauseous, you can’t sleep, it’s horrible,” Partlow told CBS 8. San Diego.
Partlow has begun monthly meetings with Leon Behnam of Citizens for Coastal Conservancy to discuss solutions to the problem that has plagued his beaches for months.
