An affluent Southern California city has been named “America’s stinkiest beach” due to its sewage crisis.
Wendy Fry, a reporter with Mercury Newssaid Tuesday was the ultimate beach day in San Diego, home to the affluent cities of La Jolla and Del Mar.
While the beaches were full, Fry said the coastline was eerily deserted.
The culprit? Over the past five years, more than 100 billion liters of raw sewage have been dumped from Mexico’s Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean.
This raw sewage is a recurring nightmare for Imperial Beach, a small coastal town of about 26,000 people.
A prosperous Southern California city is considered the ‘stinkiest beach in America’ due to its sewage crisis
While the beaches in San Diego are packed, the coastline, especially Imperial Beach, is eerily deserted. The guilty? More than 100 billion gallons of raw sewage from Mexico’s Tijuana River dumped into the Pacific Ocean in the past five years
Due to the contamination, beaches are frequently closed and the smell can be overpowering.
‘Imagine opening a manhole cover and diving in like a swan dive. This is what it feels like to hang out on the beach right now,” Wilson Howard, an Imperial Beach resident, told Fry.
“(The smell) wakes you up at night. It’s that strong,” Cara Knapp, who lives on the oceanfront Seacoast Drive with the beach as her backyard, told Fry.
Imperial Beach, once a renowned surfing destination, has fallen victim to the floodwaters of sewage that have been washing up for decades.
‘They call us ‘the stinkiest beach’. Who wants to buy a house – worth a million dollars or more – and be considered “the smelliest beach in the United States?” Knapp said.
The sewage problem also contributes to the ongoing problem of inequality and the wide gap between socio-economic classes.
The untreated sewage has become a recurring nightmare for Imperial Beach, a small coastal town of about 26,000 people
According to Fay Crevoshay, communications and policy director for the international nonprofit WILDCOAST, a significant portion of the raw sewage comes from impoverished Tijuana colonias, neighborhoods where residents lack adequate housing due to poverty.
These communities build makeshift homes using scrap materials such as garage doors and tires, and often have no connection to public sanitation.
Their sewage flows straight into a canal that eventually reaches the US, she says.
When it rains, this canal overflows, dumping waste and sewage directly into the working-class neighborhoods of Southern California’s South Bay.
Pictured: A map of the beaches in San Diego most affected by the sewage
“I like how in the U.S. they describe these communities as ‘underserved.’ In Mexico it’s ‘No served.’ No service. No service,” Crevoshay said.
Researchers say the toxins in the sewage pose a threat to public health, which is why Imperial Beach is closed more often than not.
Governor Gavin Newsom has declined to declare a state of emergency without explanation, according to Voice of San Diego.
Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Padilla and Assemblyman David Alvarez, who represents a district in South County, want the Center of Disease Control and Prevention to intervene.
“They just have to show that they care about the people because right now we have no choice but David Alvarez, our state Assembly member, and Steve Padilla, our senator,” said Serge Dedina, WILDCOAST executive director and former Mayor of Imperial Beach.
“We feel quite let down in this matter by our elected officials, and also by our state agencies.”
Despite Imperial Beach being closed for 700 consecutive days, residents are still experiencing the effects of pollution on a daily basis.
Baron Partlow, one of the affected residents, founded ‘Stop the Poop’, an organization that is outspoken about the problems these residents face
“You can smell it all night long, you can’t open your windows, you can’t close them because it’s still coming in, you can’t eat because it makes you sick, you can’t sleep, it’s horrible,” Partlow told CBS 8 San Diego
Last week, South Bay residents gathered at Coral Gate Park to air their frustrations and come up with solutions to the sewage odors from the Tijuana River Valley in their neighborhoods.
Baron Partlow, one of the affected residents, founded ‘Stop the Poop’, an organization that speaks out loudly about the problems these residents face.
“You can smell it all night long, you can’t open your windows, you can’t close them because it’s still coming in, you can’t eat because it makes you sick, you can’t sleep, it’s horrible,” Partlow told CBS 8 San Diego.
Partlow has started a monthly meeting with Leon Behnam of Citizens for Coastal Conservancy to discuss solutions to the problem that has plagued their beaches for months.