Lee Zeldin, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on Tuesday said she plans to visit the California-Mexico border to address issues pertaining to the “disgusting Mexican sewage” flowing into the United States.
Zeldin will assess the toxic waste and sewage runoff from the Tijuana River, which has resulted in beach closures in San Diego County.
‘I’ll be visiting the California-Mexico border in the coming weeks where disgusting Mexican sewage is harming our precious environment in the United States,” Zeldin wrote on X. “Permanent solutions must be urgently implemented by Mexico to end decades of their filthy sewage flowing into the U.S.
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Sewage-fouled runoff from the Tijuana River has prompted authorities call for a solution to fix the issue. (Reuters/Mike Blake)
Fox News Digital has reached out to the EPA.
The issue of untreated sewage flowing from Tijuana, Mexico, into San Diego’s beaches was exacerbated earlier this year, when, in January, the Hollister Wastewater Pump Station, which transfers sewage from Tijuana to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, malfunctioned and spilled approximately 30,000 gallons of sewage into the river.
EPA chief Lee Zeldin plans a visit to San Diego County over concerns that Mexican officials are not doing enough to address sewage in the Tijuana River that pollutes beaches on the U.S. side of the border. (Getty Images)
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who has raised the issue in the past, said he looks forward to Zeldin’s visit.
In an X post last month, Desmond called it “one of the biggest environmental and public health crises.”
U.S. Navy SEAL candidates participate in “surf immersion” during Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training at the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Center in Coronado, Calif., on May 4, 2020. (MC1 Anthony Walker/U.S. Navy via AP, File))
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“This isn’t just a nuisance — it’s a danger. Our Navy SEALs train just north of this toxic mess,” Desmond wrote. “Local families are exposed to contaminated water. Tourism suffers. And, yet, the State of California continues to look the other way. Many politicians have made promises — but delivered nothing. That ends now.”
He said Mexico has failed to fix the problem and the U.S. has failed to hold the Mexican government accountable.
Cars line up at the San Ysidro crossing port to cross from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego in the US on April 4, 2019. – US President Donald Trump’s is expected to visit a section of the border fence in Calexico during his tour to California on Friday. (GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2018, a broken sewage pipe in Mexico resulted in millions of gallons of sewage spilling into the Tijuana River, and eventually, the Pacific Ocean. Around 12 miles of beach from the border northward had to be closed at the time.
Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.