S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition. How San Diego's Haitian community is responding to the end of TPS and the threat of deportation. Haitian Bridge Alliance's Gurley Joseph joins us. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. A new report finds a steady stream of pollutants in the Tijuana River watershed , including industrial chemicals and heavy metals. E.coli levels are 30,000 times higher than the federal standard for fresh water. The findings are based on samples collected over the past two years by local nonprofit San Diego Coast Keeper. Joining me now to talk about it is their senior attorney , Patrick McDonough. Patrick , welcome. Hello.
S2: Hello. Thank you for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here. Um , tell me what makes this report different from so many others we've , we've heard about related to Tijuana River pollution. Right?
S2: Right? Yes. There has been a lot of monitoring and sampling of this area , and we all know it's very polluted. But this report really digs into the details of the exact man made chemicals and certain types of pathogens and viruses that are unfortunately , ever present in the Tijuana River valley.
S1: When you say industrial chemicals , what are you referring to? Exactly.
S2: Uh , first semi volatile organic compounds and volatile organic compounds , what we call VOCs or VOCs. Those can be things like , uh , acetone , tall chewing phenols , benzoic acid , and a bunch of other things that are difficult to pronounce. And those are used in all sorts of chemical manufacturing , plastics production , petroleum , Pesticide productions. Solvents. Degreaser. So pretty. Pretty intense. Industrial chemicals used in a wide variety , um , of manufacturing.
S1: Well , while people may not even know how to pronounce these pollutants , um , they do know and and fully understand the impact that they have on their health. So talk a bit about that. How do these chemicals , um , impact the health of those who are exposed to them? Right.
S2: Right. Well , they certainly impact the health of our waterways and aquatic ecosystems. But there are significant human health risks , which include cancer and endocrine disruption , um , respiratory irritation when you're breathing in all of these aerosolized pollutants , nervous system effects. So they're pretty widespread.
S1: Um , where are these pollutants coming from? Are there any what are the specific companies and , um , and industries along that , that watershed? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I can't speak definitively on that because I need to. This report indicates that we need to drill deeper on that front. We certainly hypothesize that San Diego coast keeper , that a lot of them are coming from maquiladoras on the Mexican side of the border , which engage in a lot of these manufacturing and heavy industrial activity , and which unfortunately , we believe are less regulated. It's very concerning that we're finding so much , so many of these chemicals , and then also some of them should be evaporating very quickly. So it's a hugely problematic that we're finding them consistently in the river miles downstream from any manufacturing. And um. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I mean , what's what's also surprising about it is , I mean , this isn't this is yet another study that shows evidence of these pollutants. But but what's being done about it is , is the question. How do we get this information in this data beyond just a report and into something actionable?
S3: That is always.
S2: A multi-billion dollar question. Um , right now there is actually a lot of movement happening on both sides of the border. So major infrastructure improvements are happening on the US side. We're expanding the the South Bay International Wastewater treatment plant that has already gone from 25 million gallons per day of treatment capacity to 35 , and they're in the works of expanding it to 50. Um , on the Mexican side , there are numerous projects to repair pumps and pipelines and treatment plants as well. And there's talk of expanding the the San Antonio de Los Buenos treatment plant , which is nearby Rosarito , about five miles south of the border , that right now only 18 million tons per day , and that leaves a major shortfall. So even if everything in the bi national wastewater treatment system was working properly , there would still be about 20 to 30 million gallons of sewage that would remain untreated and would end up in our waterways somehow. Whether it starts in Mexico or comes in through the border , through the two on a river. So there's talk of expanding that San Antonio de Los Buenos plant from 18 million gallons to to 43 , which would dramatically improve this situation. Instead of millions of gallons flowing into our oceans and through the Tijuana River. All of it could be treated before entering the environment.
S1: Well , I mean , we were talking about sewage and industrial contaminants. It sounds it's obviously dangerous for people living in the area. Also probably pretty dangerous to collect these samples. Talk to me a bit about your process there. What went into this particular study? Right.
S3: Right.
S2: Thanks for bringing that up. We have a whole science program at San Diego Coast Keeper. That is not my wheelhouse. I'm one of the attorneys. But we have trained scientists who go into this , sorry , the the Tijuana River Valley in significant personal protection gear. We're talking full respirators , long gloves , eyewear. And after they collect samples , anecdotally , they also report not feeling well to us. So yeah , don't try this at home to the general public. It is. It can be pretty dangerous. And we collect those samples on a monthly basis at four locations throughout the Tijuana River valley to or directly in the river itself , and then to our in the northward flowing canyons of Smuggler's Gulch and Goat Canyon. Those are not always flowing fully. They shouldn't be. But when they are , we collect samples from those canyons as well. And then we don't have an in-house lab. We actually collect the samples and send them to a professional laboratory to run the analysis. And then they give us a big , long report of all of the chemicals that they found and the levels of pollutants , as you mentioned in the intro intro , like E.coli , which can frequently exceed their capacity to even find out how high the level of E.coli goes. So , for example , the the numeric threshold for human health and recreating in waters is a is 320. And we frequently received the lab report that said that E coli levels exceeded 16 million , so that we don't know how high the levels actually are in certain cases.
S1: That's something , you know , something that just dawned on me is that , you know , here in San Diego , I mean , we're known for consistent weather , but that has not been the case as of late. We're just coming off of a heat wave. The winter is expected to be really wet. So how do weather patterns , particularly wet and dry seasons , affect pollution levels?
S2: That's a great question. So there are multiple problems with the boundary solution crisis in the Taiwan Valley. There's the dry weather , just leak of sewage and some of these industrial pollutants that we're we're seeing. And that's when it's not raining. Right. That's just constant , um , leak , spill , etc. maybe just dumping into the open channels and in the rivers and waterways when it rains , that presents a whole other problem. And the biggest concerns are added pressure on the infrastructure system. So a lot of rainwater gets into the wastewater system. It creates pressure points , pumps and pipelines and things like that can break. And it also brings with it a huge amount of trash and sediment that tends to clog up infrastructure , the river valley. I think just this last year , which had very little rain , comparatively to what we're expecting in this El Nino winter , the trash boom in the Tijuana River still collected. I think it was 1500 tons of trash , which is absolutely staggering. And with larger rains , we expect more trash. So that's kind of separate from the findings of this report. Sure. Um , but they do the dry weather and the wet weather. Yeah , the dry weather and weather problems are , uh , both significant in their way. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. This report also looks at the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Um , walk me through the significance of that. Right.
S3: Right.
S2: So organisms , even aquatic organisms , they cannot live without oxygen. And the dissolved oxygen levels in the water are pretty indicative of the health of an ecosystem. So you have fish , you know , they'll need oxygen through their gills in order to live and benthic invertebrates to as well. And we've seen just complete dead zones in the two on a river valley. Unfortunately , where the role of dissolved oxygen drops so low that nothing can live and that bounces up and down. But we we do typically see very low levels in the summertime without , um , you know , flushes of the wet weather , fresh water , and it's just a solid stream of dry weather , sewage essentially , that is really taking a toll on this ecosystem. And you can imagine the cumulative impacts that year over year , how that can impact , uh , the ecology of this. It's a really valuable question.
S1: Um , I mean , you know , Patrick , this this question here kind of goes back to the question I asked you earlier about why this is such a persistent problem. Um , as an attorney for San Diego Coast keeper , I mean , you often approach from a policy perspective. So why do you think there is such a disconnect between policy and reality if we know the pollution is such a problem?
S2: Yeah , if only I had a one sentence answer for that. I could solve all the problems. Uh , it implicated this being an international issue. You know , we can have the best laws and enforcement here in the United States , but we we don't really have that type of influence in Mexico. Now , there are numerous treaties and treaty minutes in place. And the two governments , I do want to give them credit for improving the level of urgency over the past few years. And yes , coast keeper did sue the federal government and then the federal government. Who owns that South Bay International Water treatment plant? Then our federal government applies more pressure to the Mexican side because that infrastructure is connected. It was intended to do that. That's what the treaty minutes and agreements all state. Um , and then there's the money side , right. Like we this costs a lot of money , not just to build infrastructure , but to maintain it. And that's where a lot of these failures happened in the past. Is Mexico vowed to invest X amount of money? So did the US , but that no money was set aside for the operation and maintenance of this multi-million gallon wastewater system. And then , lo and behold , things fell apart. So they're realizing some of their mistakes now. Um , but there are so many entities involved. I think that's a really big goal. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. In the last minute , we had several. Oh , okay.
S4: I'm sorry.
S1: No , no , sorry about that. And the last minute we have , I mean , what what further research needs to be done to better understand the pollution issue. Yeah.
S3: Yeah.
S2: So we can continue to do this , um , both on the US and Mexico , if we have partners that we work with on the the the Mexican side of the border. Um , there's the two Waterkeeper. Other academic institutions. I want to give a lot of credit to the San Diego State School of Public Health and Doctor Kim Prather at UCSD. They're doing a lot of great research on the impacts of what these pollutants do to people , but we need to continue to see what is in the water and where it's coming from. And we can't do that with without further extreme analysis.
S1: I've been speaking with Patrick McDonough. He's senior attorney for San Diego Coast keeper. Patrick , thank you so very much.
S2: Thanks for having us. Really appreciate it.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
