Townhall has covered time and time again how the border crisis has impacted American communities throughout Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. With the border crisis comes a rise in crime, human trafficking, among other things.
However, one region is experiencing a major crisis in the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border due to Mexico’s insufficient wastewater treatment.
Communities along California’s border with Mexico have requested for emergency assistance due to a cross-border sewage crisis that is poisoning the air in their communities.
In a letter led by Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre to the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the communities called for regional and state agencies to step in and resolve the crisis.
According to The Hill, Imperial Beach and other neighboring areas have struggled with “unrelenting, transboundary sewage situation that results from insufficient wastewater treatment on the Mexican side of the border” for years.
This has caused water contamination, long-term beach closures, and now, an airborne public health threat (via The Hill):
The Sunday letter signatories — local politicians, citizens, health professionals, academics and environmental activists — called upon regional and state agencies to distribute KN-95 masks and air purifiers that are effective in removing both particulate matter and gases in all affected areas.
The priority, they stressed, should be on immunocompromised individuals, the elderly, families with young children and schools.
“Our families, children, seniors and the immunocompromised are constantly at risk, breathing in harmful toxic gases that no one should have to endure,” Aguirre said in a Sunday statement. “We are fighting not just for our health but for our right to clean air and a safe environment.”
While some efforts have taken place, Aguirre said that this is “not enough.”
“The urgency of this situation can not be overstated,” the letter said. “We ask for immediate intervention and implementation of these requests by the County Office of Emergency Management, Air Pollution Control District, and Health and Human Services.”
On X, San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas wrote that this is an “emergency.”
“Our communities are facing the worst environmental and social justice crisis of our time, and we need action now,” she wrote. “I will continue to push for immediate short-term solutions and fight to ensure that our families can breathe clean air and enjoy our beaches.”
— Supervisor Nora Vargas (@SupNoraVargas) September 8, 2024
