Imperial Beach is a classic Southern California beach town. It is an affordable, working-class surf town rich in community and abundant with military families. The way of life here revolves around our ocean.
The Navy personnel are a foundation of our community. But a dirty secret is not only making locals sick, it’s emerging into a national security problem. The recent Defense Department report outlines a reality that we local doctors have seen for years: Pollution from the Tijuana River is poisoning people, including our Navy SEALs.
This is what it looks like when Mexico dumps millions of gallons of raw sewage into the United States.
This isn’t just pollution, it’s a health and environmental crisis, plus a national security threat due to the proximity of the Navy Seal training.
And it’s getting worse:… pic.twitter.com/5l79u9qnVp
— Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) April 4, 2025
Shocking as that may seem, the report fails to reflect the breadth of the problem.
The source of the pollution is the Tijuana River, which flows from Mexico into the U.S. and eventually into the Pacific Ocean near Imperial Beach. Millions of gallons a day of untreated wastewater from Mexico flows into our community. The river is tainted with harmful toxins from industrial waste, trash and untreated sewage.
