SAN DIEGO – Sewage contamination has led to elevated bacteria levels in the water, raising medical safety concerns at several San Diego beach areas.
The Department of Environmental Health Quality warned that water closure orders have been issued for Tijuana Slough, Silver Strand and Imperial Beach shorelines.
Three more beaches are currently under water contact advisories, including Mission Bay, La Jolla and Ocean Beach’s dog beaches.
The city of Imperial Beach, the hardest-hit community north of the US-Mexico border, has been closed by authorities since Dec. 18, 2023.
“More than 135 billion gallons of raw sewage have been dumped into the Pacific Ocean, resulting in beach closures for more than 900 consecutive days,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre told FOX 5 San Diego. “This is a serious public health crisis that is impacting every asset in the life of our community.”
But the latest closures don’t guarantee everyone’s safety.
“These closures do not fully prevent people from getting sick as some toxins aerosolize and contaminate the air in Imperial Beach and nearby border communities,” the Surfriders Foundation said earlier this month when it released its list of the 10 most germy beaches in America for 2023. “People are getting sick just by breathing the air while they’re going to work, school or even having fun in their own backyard.”
South Bay Urgent Care in Imperial Beach told FOX5 they’ve seen a 140% increase in the number of patients needing respiratory care over the past year.
“The coastal waters of Tijuana, Mexico, and Imperial Beach, USA, are frequently polluted by millions of gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater runoff,” the study states. “Inflows into coastal waters cause more than 100 million illnesses annually worldwide, but CWP can affect many more people on land via seawater spray aerosols.”
County Supervisor Terra Lawson Remar wants to determine the extent to which airborne bacteria is affecting residents’ health by studying the spread of the disease by ZIP code, FOX 5 reported.
“Our county has been leading the fight to work with local cities to clean up the Tijuana River’s sewage crisis,” she said. “We’ve been calling on state and federal governments to take action to protect public health and clean up our local beaches, which has resulted in some funding for improvements and strengthened our efforts to protect our beaches, bays and coastlines.”
The Blue Water Task Force posts the latest water quality test results on its website. The EPA has a list of all the beaches it monitors. The EPA also posts beach closures and advisories along with water quality test results.
