EPA Head Says Border Sewage Crisis ‘Unacceptable,’ Tells Mexico to Honor Commitments

California leaders have urged the EPA’s new administrator to tackle the situation that has affected public health for decades.

Raw sewage flows along the Tijuana River located between the primary and secondary borders next to Tijuana, Mexico, in San Diego on June 27, 2024. Mike Bake/Reuters

The new chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed outrage over the Tijuana River sewage pollution that has affected San Diego border communities and generated health hazards for decades, recently causing a record of more than 1,000 consecutive days of beach closures.

“I was just briefed that Mexico is dumping large amounts of raw sewage into the Tijuana River, and it’s now seeping into the U.S.,” Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator, said in a post on social media platform X on the afternoon of March 8.