
By Leon Benham
While our local elected officials insist there was no sign of toxic chemicals in the Tijuana River Valley visual evidence and Mother Nature screams at our community that there is something terribly wrong with the ocean, river, and nearshore environment that is killing fish and making people sick.
Unfortunately for the citizens of the South Bay, our public officials and environmental groups have made numerous and repeated errors in judgment and now claiming there is nothing to worry about.
As a case in point, Mother Nature tells us something is wrong, and the proof is being made clear off the shores of Imperial Beach. Few people know that directly above the City of San Diego’s 12-foot diameter sewage pipe 3 miles off Imperial Beach there were thousands of floating dead fish at approximately the same time the Mexican river pumps were turned on due to liquid cyanide gas being detected in the Tijuana River Valley. (City of San Diego underwater sewage pipe is known as the SBOO).
It is not presently known if the new river pumps1 installed in 2021, designed to capture and carry the river sewage ten miles south of Imperial Beach, were turned on because of the toxic waste emergency found in the River Valley or if the repairs were finally made to the same pipes that were broken intentionally 1010 days ago by Mexico for the new Viaduct Road project. These sewage flows have averaged 40 to 50 million gallons a day (mgd) each day for the last 1010 days.
Here is what we factually know from recent events which should make us stop and think.
1) In November of 2023 thousands of fish were found floating dead in the far back reaches of the Imperial Beach Estuary known as the Oneonta Slough, by Mark Durazo, a local resident who photographed these dead fish. This was next to the hiking trail at Kiwanis Kids Garden located on the Imperial Beach. Many people were drawn in because thousands of seagulls were feasting on the dead fish.
2) During the first week of September 2024 researchers conducting air quality testing measured cyanide gas that can cause extreme physical ailments and even death. These researchers fled the Tijuana River Valley immediately fearing for their lives 2 .
3) Approximately at this same time pumps that take the Tijuana River Water (sewage) to the ocean were turned on and some of the river water was pumped off Imperial Beach to the SBOO.
4) Fishermen, miles away from the River Valley, in boats off Imperial Beach spotted thousands of birds circling and sitting on the water above the SBOO. Thinking the “BITE WAS ON” these fishermen quickly headed over to the area only to find thousands of “Rock Perch” floating dead on the surface. These types of Rock Perch live on the slotted 12-foot diameter sewage pipe which is covered with 3 to 5-ton rock boulders known as rip rap.
5) Liquids like gasoline and cyanide are “Volatile” and have the distinctive property of wanting to go into the air almost immediately. If cyanide liquid was released off the SBOO then the effect on the fish immediately surrounding the slotted pipe would be almost certainly fatal, as the gas is directly breathed in through the gills.
With the first report of fish die-off in November 2023 documented in the Imperial Beach Slough and considering the recent reports by fishermen of mass fish kills off at the SBOO and at the same time the reports of toxic gas that causes researchers to flee for their lives out of the Tijuana River Valley you have to ask yourself?
It is irresponsible for our Federal, State, County, and Imperial Beach leaders to coordinate a massive media campaign that dismisses public concerns about toxic waste contamination. The only reasonable source of this type of pollution is from Mexico and the Corporate Multinational factories operating in Mexico that produce this toxic waste. But our government’s official press releases do not mention these sources at any time or even use the word Mexico.
As a local resident, environmentalist’, fishermen and watermen I have read the long letters from EPA experts like Tomas Torres, Andrew Sawyer, and Doug Liden and the wave of news photo ops by our local officials such as Nora Vargas, Steve Paddilla, Dave Gibson and David Alverez which continue to support dumping 480% more Mexican sewage off Imperial Beach and create contaminated ponds of sewage in our Tijuana River Valley.
These are the same officials who, like the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Tribes describe as speaking to us with a forked tongue “Wašícu” because they now want us to believe that there is no problem of toxic cross-border pollution. The recent history of the Settlement Agreement to bypass a thorough environmental review of the present direct impacts of the SBOO sewage outfall on our near ocean environment health including the kelp beds, fish flesh toxin, and public safety stinks. We can see with our own eyes the dead fish and the impact of sending more sewage off Imperial Beach makes our environment. These words by our elected leaders stink like the sewage smell we now are experiencing.
Most people do not realize that this settlement agreement, created by lawyers, derailed the three-year study by the best environmental group in the world called Arcadis which, if installed, would have reduced beach closure days to just 30 days a year (Rain Days). Also, not widely known, these same EPA officials and local city and state leaders caused the settlement agreement to bring most of Tijuana’s sewage to be dumped off Imperial Beach instead of sending the Mexican sewage 10 miles South.
Our public officials, much like the public officials in Flint Michigan, have convinced themselves constantly there was no problem with the sewage. The same “psychosis of denial” has clouded the thinking ability of our local officials, or they are working for the best interests of someone else.
The thousands of floating dead fish and Mother Nature says our Public Officials are dead wrong.
Leon Benham is President of Citizens for Coastal Conservancy