Several beaches in San Diego County have been closed due to high bacteria levels, health officials have revealed.
A total of four beaches were shuttered following the discovery Saturday, all along the U.S, Mexico border.
Among them was Imperial Beach, which a study recently crowned the dirtiest beach in the country. All are considered victims of Tijuana’s broken infrastructure, as the city continues to pump sewage onto the California side of the border.
The tainted water flows north to not only Imperial Beach, but the Silver Strand State Beach, Coronado Beach, and along Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge – where the Tijuana River meets the Pacific just south of Imperial.
All were closed Saturday due to the presence of potentially harmful bacteria – as several water contact advisories were issued nearby warning swimmers to proceed at their own risk.
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Several beaches in San Diego County have been closed due to high bacteria levels, health officials have revealed. A polluted Imperial Beach is seen here
A total of four beaches were shuttered following the discovery Saturday, all along the U.S, Mexico border where sewage is seeping through from Tijuana
‘CLOSURE: Bacteria levels exceed health standards,’ an update from the San Diego Coastkeeper read Sunday night.
‘Avoid water contact in the advisory area.’
The alert applied to all four of the aforementioned beaches, which are all set within a few miles of each other along the Southern California coast.
There, over the course of several miles beginning from the other side of the international border, floats pounds of raw human waste, as the city of Tijuana continues to grow faster than its infrastructure.
The resulting problem is thus seen just south of Imperial Beach near the wildlife refuge, before it moves northward to Imperial, the Silver Strand State, and Coronado.
‘In Tijuana, they always seem to be fixing the same broken pipe,’ said environmentalist and former mayor of Imperial Beach Serge Dedina of the prospective cause late last year.
‘There is always a pipe broken, there’s always some problem,’ Dedina said.
‘And the problem now is 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.’
The pollution thus begins just south of Imperial Beach near the wildlife refuge, before it moves northward to Imperial, the Silver Strand State, and Coronado.
It’s being brought by Tijuana’s broken infrastructure, experts say – as the city continues to pump sewage onto the California side of the border
The politician proceeded to accuse officials in both Tijuana and Baja California of not taking proper care of the city’s sewer system – to the point where the system has essentially collapsed, allowing raw sewage to enter the US via the river and surrounding ocean.
‘And no one’s going to say a word about it,’ he said.
Current Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, meanwhile, claimed the once popular beach is hit by some 40 million gallons of sewage every day, telling NBC San Diego at the start of the year: ‘You have anything from heavy metals in the water to chemicals to chlorinated pesticides.
‘There’s traces of feces in the water,’ she added.
‘It’s the worst stuff you can possibly imagine,’ Dedina further told the outlet.
‘Raw human waste.’
‘Our local beach here behind me has been closed every single day this year,’ Aguirre added at the time
‘It’s devastating. We have an entire generation of kids that are now college age that don’t know what it is to have clean water at their hometown.’
‘There’s traces of feces in the water,’ one local official recently said of the situation. ‘It’s the worst stuff you can possibly imagine’, another sniped
‘Raw human waste,’ one official said – as local continue to accuse officials in both Tijuana and Baja California of not taking proper care of the city’s sewer system. The toxic tide seen in Imperial Beach – seen here – and other shores nearby is the result
As of writing, all of the beaches remain closed, until sampling confirms those areas are safe for contact.
Officials from the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health urged members of the public to avoid water contact in the interim, even as shorelines along Mission Bay North Cove and La Jolla Children’s Pool are not closed, but still have bacteria levels exceeding standards.
‘Bacteria levels exceed health standards. Avoid water contact in the advisory area,’ Sunday statements for those nearby beaches read.
As of writing, none of the alerts have been lifted. An update is expected at some point this week.
