S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show , the latest on efforts to solve the Tijuana River's pollution problem. We'll hear from San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre , who shares the latest on state funding and state bills. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. For many living near the polluted Tijuana River , any relief from its nauseating odors is very much welcome. San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre knows this firsthand. Many of her South County constituents have experienced symptoms like headaches , coughs , and respiratory issues. They're more than fed up , and she's been pushing for using county reserve money to pay for new sewage fixes. Well , last week she made that happen with support from her board colleagues. And Paloma joins me now to share details on that funding and updates on state bills related to the Tijuana River. Supervisor Aguirre , welcome.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here. So tell me , last week you garnered enough support from your board colleagues to use nearly 9 million in county reserves for a series of initiatives designated and designed to bring relief and produce new data. Give us a breakdown of how this money will be spent. Sure.
S2: Sure. Of course. So , as you mentioned , tens of thousands of people living in South Bay are being affected daily by not just the churning waters off our coast. When it's closed , as we know it's been closed now for four straight years , but also people living close to the river itself. The river is shooting up aerosols into the air of not just noxious odors , but toxic gases including hydrogen sulfide and pathogens , parasites , bacteria , viruses and the the array of ailments that my constituents are feeling. Go from upper to lower respiratory ailments , to gastrointestinal illnesses , to chronic headaches to other types of symptoms. So I am determined to not have to wait for the federal government to come fix this , or for Mexico to fix this , because my constituents are suffering every single day and the the issue continues to worsen. So what we did is and I'm very grateful to my colleagues on the board , we allocated $4 million to expand their air purifier program last year through the Air Pollution Control District. We distributed 10,000 at the last board meeting at the Air Pollution Control District , we have approved an additional $1 million. So the 4 million plus the 1 million , it's going to give us enough to expand the program to about 40,000 households that desperately need an air purifier in their home. Obviously , that's a band aid , but it's desperately needed because people can avoid the beach. People can avoid breeding , right ? So that's one two. We are also going to conduct an epidemiological study. We have several different surveys that have been completed. The centers for Disease Control did two studies that are self-reported data. They found that at least 70% of families surveyed are reporting illnesses. San Diego State University has also has a longitudinal survey where they're collecting self-reported information on an ongoing basis. But what we need is hard medical data to better understand exactly what is making it into human bodies. We know that political evidence is there for soil , water and air , um , you know , pathogens and pollutants. But we don't know how much of that is entering our bodies and how severe the damages of that long term are for chronic health exposures. So our epidemiological study will help us shine light on that. And then lastly , one of the key problem areas in the town of River Valley is a hotspot at Saturn Boulevard , that it's a piece of manmade infrastructure that was created to prevent flooding of , um , residential and rancher areas there. But now it's actually exacerbating the emission of aerosols into the air , basically shooting them up because there's a cascade and some rocks that are creating that turbulence of the river. We want to ensure that we remove that , to allow the river to naturally flow and begin mitigating the emission of all of those toxics into the air. And that is something we've already put skin in the game. Through a different initiative of mine , we've completed , um , we have a request for proposals for a feasibility analysis. And then we are working with our state delegation to ensure that funding from prop four makes its way down here so that we can remove that hotspot. And these are all tangible things that we can do now and not have to wait for Mexico or the federal government to tackle.
S1: Well , okay , so I've got a question , because , you know , there's a lot of people who are like , listen , we don't need any more tests to tell us that we are sick from aerosolized sewage and these odors that are in the air. We know that this is causing us illnesses and sending us to the hospital. But. But what ? Tell me what further testing will do. What ? It strengthens the argument.
S2: Uh , there's there's peer reviewed data that's out there. But for example , the standards for California go from standards for safety and workers at treatment plants or air ambient quality standards where , you know , basically it's a nuisance. There's nothing that that's in place to understand well , what can be detrimental to the human body long term. In order to create standards , we need to have hard data. And one piece of hard data can be what we're seeing medically. We know that people are going to the E.R. , we know that people are going to urgent care. We know even people are making it across the board or people who are uninsured , but there's no collective effort to collect all of that data and show clear , hard data patterns that we need to. Sadly , and let me be very clear , sadly , we need that to demonstrate to our state and federal administrations that the pace of solutions is not fast enough. Okay.
S1: Okay. So the hope is that that will speed up the pace. Having that evidence.
S2: That's the goal. Obviously , if if I had my pie in the sky , the river should be diverted and treated until we eliminate the main source of pollution , which is the river. The river should not be flowing. The river is a concentrated flow of industrial and residential toxic waste that is going into our air and our soil in our water. Until that is eliminated , all the efforts that we've heard from this administration from the past federal administration are not going to address that. And in the meantime , we're going to continue to have the tens of thousands of people falling ill. And who knows ? I mean , ultimately , we want to prevent even deaths , right ? And I'm not being hyperbolic. That's plenty. There's plenty of empirical evidence that shows that we are being that that the toxics are present in the environment. We need to , you know , Link that to what we're seeing in people's bodies , but ultimately we need to remove the source of the problem.
S1: Yeah , well , in the in the meantime , the quick fix is to have air purifiers. So you got 4 million for that plus an additional 1 million. And so far I mean that's to distribute more than 10,000 units. But there's also this effort to get more than just one purifier per household. Right. Has one.
S2: Thankfully , the Air Pollution Control District did a survey and found that 80% of households that had at least received the one air purifier report much improvements on in their health , right in their symptoms. Now , the the California Department of Public Health recommends that there should be an air purifier per room. Because these air purifiers only have about 300 to 400 square foot capacity in my district , as you know , we have it's a working class district. We have , um , the highest rates of poverty in the county. Uh , and we have also , uh , households that are multi-generational households. So you have sometimes , uh , more than one family living under one roof. So one is it enough ? And that was the ethos of , um , you know , the catalyst to have us take a look at how can we expand the program not just beyond 10,000 households , but getting people , uh , more than one ? Uh , and like you said , it's not it's not a permanent solution , but it's a , a preventative measure to begin to mitigate the exposure of people that have nowhere to go. And let me be very clear. It's it's it breaks your heart when you have people calling you , emailing you , telling you , I want to leave. Um , I know that when I leave for 2 or 3 days , uh , visiting family , maybe their symptoms improve. But I have people on fixed income. I have people that are working three jobs that have no , no ways of relocating. So at least getting them an air purifier or two is is the bare minimum we can do. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. I know one of your top priorities is to address this sewage hotspot on Saturn Boulevard. Tell me what's happening there.
S2: Yeah , so we just completed a concept design , and like I said , we put out a request for proposals so that we can have a project completely designed on what it would look like. So primarily what we were looking to do is remove , uh , the cascading effect of the river. Uh , we need to make sure that we level the , the the road. Saturn Boulevard is a elevated road , uh , that goes over the river. But like I said , ironically , that's contributing to the increase in turbulence of the river. So what we need to do is remove that cascade , remove the riprap and rocks , create an elongated pipeline so that the water could go through the pipeline in a calm manner and prevent it from aerosolized. So the county , like I said , would put we're putting skin in the game. We are putting this funding forward so that when the money from the state from prop four makes its way down here , through our efforts that are ongoing , um , we can have a shovel ready project and remove that hotspot as fast as possible. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You've mentioned that , you know , the pipeline extension is really just a temporary fix.
S2: And it's because we had four different university researchers from four different universities embedded in the community in 2024 , and continue to be there. They have identified that as as the hotspot. But like I said , ultimately this is also a temporary solution. The elimination of the source. It's what's most important. If we were to eliminate those flows , the river flowing across the border into our communities , we wouldn't have the need for a hotspot removal. Uh , now , is that a longer term effort ? Absolutely. And it's going to , uh , require us to continue to advocate for that , because right now , the solutions that have been proposed and that are in place by the federal and Mexican government do not begin to address that. So we're going to continue doing that work. We know Secretary Zeldin is going to be down here , uh , you know , touting the efforts of the Trump administration , which are good. We're moving forward. It's been a collective effort for many years. Um , but until we don't address the main source of pollution , which is the river , my constituents are going to continue to be exposed to all of these pollutants. And that's absolutely unacceptable.
S1: And yeah , to circle back to to those pollutants that that people are being exposed to. Um , you know , if , if this studies , um , produce that , that clear evidence that's necessary , um , and shows that the pollution has harmed residents.
S2: We are the public health authority of the land. So what ? That's another reason why we need to have this data in place so that we can make appropriate interventions if needed. I don't see this as being any different than some of the other disasters that have occurred , not just in this state , but in other states. We have the Dominguez Canal in L.A. , where there was a it was different. There is that there was a known specific source. There was a spill of some chemicals into a canal , and the households around the area that were being exposed to these pollutants had to be mobilized. And there was a state of emergency declared there. Um , we know Ohio , Palestine and Ohio. There was a the the train derailed with chemicals. There had to be a state of emergency declared there. That's why you'll hear me constantly calling for that state of emergency. Uh , because the efforts that have been agreed to by the Trump administration with Mexico most recently don't begin to address that. And not I am of the belief that we're entering a state of , um , you know , almost playing chicken with Mexico. It's it's the refusal of the federal government to invest more resources to address the immediate needs of our residents here in the region. Waiting for Mexico to do more. And I'll address the criticism that I've heard. Why don't you hold , quote unquote , Mexico accountable ? Well , Mexico is a sovereign nation. There are no mechanisms for us to infer from at least the local governments to enforce anything that is up to the federal government. Can the federal government do more to pressure Mexico even more ? Yes , absolutely. Can Mexico do more because it's coming 100% from Mexico ? All of this ? Yes. Have they done efforts ? Have they made progress in what they've committed to ? Yes. Although I can tell you , I've been working on this issue for over 20 years. And there is a source of pollution , uh , coming from Canada.
S1: Please forgive my my interruption , but that definitely seems like that has been the struggle. And I know this is something that we'll continue to cover , but I really appreciate you joining us today. I've been speaking with Paloma Aguirre. She is the San Diego County supervisor representing district one. Supervisor , thank you so much , and thanks for the work you're doing.
S3: Thank you.
S4: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today.
S5: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
