A bright yellow circle slowly formed in the water at Glorietta Bay Park in Coronado on Thursday afternoon.
They were surfers, clean water advocates and community members on surfboards, paddleboards and kayaks. Except they weren’t wearing wetsuits. They donned hazmat suits.
“The hazmat suit is a visual cue that we’re in a crisis,” said Corey Cleary-Stoner, one of the community members. “The most essential natural resource is under attack, and it’s under attack by us.”
He was referring to what’s been happening for years on the other side of the San Diego Bay, about eight miles south of the park: beaches closed for swimming because of sewage contamination that makes its way from Tijuana.
The pollution has forced lifeguards to adapt by limiting their time in the water and using mobile showers attached to their vehicles; children in local summer camps are bussed to beaches outside of their communities, and residents have become sick from exposure to the sewage contamination.
Dozens of participants in their protective gear wanted to bring attention to all of that. They called for urgent action to end the decades-long pollution, and also voiced concerns about oil spills from offshore drilling if allowed.
The paddle out marked the start of the second annual San Diego Climate Week. It runs through Oct. 8.
"We are opening Climate Week in San Diego fashion — in the ocean that we love and vow to defend," Meg Ferrigno, the event’s co-chair, said in a statement. "The Tijuana River is considered the most endangered river in the world. We must do something now for the waters and all life; these rivers must be offered rights to survive."
Thursday’s event comes days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation addressing Tijuana River-related pollution and offshore drilling.
One of the bills, introduced by state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, directs Cal/OSHA to develop workplace standards for minimizing exposure to cross-border pollution, protections which would include lifeguards and park rangers.
State Sen. Steve Padilla’s, D-San Diego, SB 58 directs the state Air Resources Board to update California’s threshold for hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of untreated wastewater in the Tijuana River. The board established the standard in 1969 and last reviewed it in 1984. Supporters argued the standard was developed to control odor nuisance and not to protect against getting sick.
And Assembly Bill 1448, authored by State Asm. Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, prevents state oil and gas infrastructure from supporting new federal offshore-related leases.
Ferrigno said there are plenty of events to attend at this year’s Climate Week. More than 200 are taking place across the county, including beach cleanups, a science-based card game, seaweed tasting, yoga on a farm, and several summits on fire, air and land.
The events are also an opportunity for the public to learn from each other as they navigate escalating effects of climate change, said Ferrigno.
“We have people here that have been impacted by floods,” she said. “We have people here impacted by fire. We have people here that can't breathe their own air inside of their homes. And so we want to hear those issues and get them on the mic so we can understand and do something about it.”
