Lee Zeldin, the new administrator of the American environmental protection agency, promised on Tuesday in San Diego to put pressure on Mexico to stop the Tijuana river wastewater crisis.
“Mexico must participate in its role in cleaning the contamination they caused,” he said at a press conference at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. “They cannot see this as an American problem simply because their contamination has reached the ground.”
The new administrator, which has been shooting several states and various sites that have been struck by disaster since its entry in January in January, underlined the urgency of preventing new pollution from entering the United States by accelerating the completion of projects on both sides of the border.
“I cannot imagine living with that,” Zeldin told a crowd of journalists from the smell of sewer gas odors during his first -hand gaze on the Tijuana river valley on Tuesday morning. “I’m not going to stand in front of you right now and the sugar that this smell … can be tolerated.”
His visit to the Earth was welcomed by residents who criticized the last administration for not having declared the emergency issue and who pressure for more federal officials to attack the crisis of the first hand. But there was also a level of skepticism on how Zeldin and the Trump administration would hold responsible Mexico and if we could expect funding reductions.
Zeldin said that EPA would give Mexico a list of projects to put an end to the wastewater crisis.
Certain possible efforts were shared following a previous private round table with several local and federal elected officials who were held next to him during the press conference. Among them were the republican representative Darrell Issa, the supervisors of County Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, the mayor of Chula Vista John McCann and the member of the Council of the Imperial Beach Mitch Mckay, and the Democratic representatives Mike Levin and Juan Vargas. The officials said it was time to see a return on more than $ 600 million in federal funding that has been allocated since 2020 to repair the long -made infrastructure.
Zeldin has recognized that Mexico improves its wastewater system in Basse-California, but said the projects take too long. Thus, he said, the EPA “will test each project and each calendar” to accelerate completion.
“We did it yesterday,” he said about a meeting on Monday with the Mexican secretary to the environment and natural resources Alicia Bárcena. After “a few minutes of conversation through creative solutions,” he said, they found a way to finish a project that will divert certain wastewater from the Tijuana river at least a year earlier than the time initially estimated in 2027.
Bárcena said that the end of the wastewater crisis is also in the lead for Mexico and that it has made a lot of progress, in particular with its overhaul of the San Antonio Water Factory in Los Buenos in Baja California, which is “days” to live. The factory, on which Mexico inaugurated earlier last year, had long disappeared, leading to millions of gallons per day of untreated wastewater in the peaceful ocean and polluting the shores of the Southern County.
On Monday in Little Italy, Bárcena met Zeldin and William McIntosh, the newly appointed commissioner of the International Borders and American Water Commission. The agency manages the South Bay factory in San Diego and oversees aquatic treaties with Mexico. Bárcena said that she had felt “a very good will” from the EPA to continue working together on the issue.
She added that the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, also undertook to move forward with agreements and to work in cooperation with the United States
Zeldin suggested to extend an oceanic emissary that transports the wastewater from the South Bay factory to the peaceful ocean so that the flows are eliminated from local shores. He had also recognized a local push to designate the Tijuana river valley a superfund site, but said that the flow of flows should tackle cleaning.
The administrator also suggested that the EPA sends some of its employees to the San Antonio factory in Los Buenos which will soon open up to inspect its operations.
“It’s not a new idea,” he said. “We have work history (a border) which includes the measurement, the conformity, the guarantee that what is promised is done, and this is what will be different this new day.”
The officials did not specify the measures that the federal government would take to hold responsible Mexico. But Imperial Beach City leaders have some ideas.
Last week, during a 4-1 vote, the municipal council adopted a resolution suggesting that Congress pushes Mexico to accelerate solutions to put an end to pollution or cope with consequences, such as the limitation of level passages and drinking water sales in Tijuana, among other measures. Mayor Paloma Aguirre voted against resolution.
Aguirre, a democrat who has become a leading voice in the fight against the cross -border crisis, said that she had been encouraged by Zeldin’s visit. Aguirre said that she was not invited to the round table, but met the administrator during a visit to the South Bay factory, where she shared her community concerns with him.
She said that she was also cautious about whether the federal administration would see Mexico puts pressure on “as the only strategy” to stop the cross -border problem.
Zeldin had to conclude his visit with a helicopter visit to the border region and a meeting with Navy Seals, who reported hundreds of cases of acute gastrointestinal diseases after polluted water training.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
