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Imperial Beach Closes After Mexico Sewage Flows North

The view from Imperial Beach looking north from SeaCoast drive on a stormy morning April 5, 2019.
Erik Anderson
The view from Imperial Beach looking north from SeaCoast drive on a stormy morning April 5, 2019.
The entire shoreline of a Southern California city is closed to swimmers after sewage-contaminated runoff flowed into California from Mexico's Tijuana River.

The entire shoreline of a Southern California city is closed to swimmers after sewage-contaminated runoff flowed into California from Mexico's Tijuana River.

The San Diego County Department of Environment Health issued the order Sunday, expanding the closure that has been in place for months for part of the Imperial Beach coast.

Officials say more than 110 million gallons of toxic stormwater has flowed north from Mexico since April.

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The closure will be in place until testing shows the water is safe.

California and the cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista sued the Trump administration last year over the recurring toxic flows from Mexico.

The lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. government to upgrade the collection system that diverts flows to a wastewater treatment plant.

In today’s San Diego News Matters podcast, officials killed a mountain lion Tuesday suspected of attacking a 4-year-old boy. Plus, a new $35 million project led by a San Diego researcher will target deadly viruses, such as Ebola and mosquito-borne diseases, and City Heights is now home to a federal program that gives tax breaks for building in economically distressed areas.