Face shields, dry suits, showers: South County lifeguards adapt to persistent sewage contamination

Coronado lifeguards use dry suits for open water rescues. Imperial Beach lifeguards decontaminate in showers after leaving the ocean. And both ditched jet skis for the protection offered by boats.

These are not new equipment standards.

These are tools that both South County departments have deployed independently to protect themselves from daily exposure to polluted and sewage-contaminated waters. No safety standards exist for rescuers who come into contact with contaminated water while trying to save lives. That’s because no other agency in the country faces this problem, experts on the ground say.

Captain Sean Carey, Coronado Beach lifeguard

(Courtesy of Sean Carey)

Years of disrepair and underinvestment in treatment plants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have led to billions of gallons of partially treated wastewater flowing for years Tijuana to the shores of southern San Diego. Work is underway to repair the infrastructure. But the delayed response has led to public health complications, beach closures, economic hardship and difficult rescues for front-line workers like lifeguards and lifeguards. Border Patrol Agents.

“We can’t wait years for the federal government to get enough money and do all this construction,” said Capt. Sean Carey, Coronado’s rescuer. “We just need some protection now because it’s lifeguard cancer.”

Establishing safety standards is one way to start, Carey said. He is leading an effort to do just that.

In the meantime, Imperial Beach and Coronado are doing what they can to continue rescues while minimizing contact with polluted waters.

Take the things over control

Lifeguard oversight in South County is evolving as it adapts to worsening cross-border pollution.

At Imperial Beach, where the shores have been farm Over the past two years, lifeguards have been busier than ever, but not in the water, said Capt. Jason Lindquist of Imperial Beach Marine Safety.

“You’re like a land lifeguard … until you have to get (into the water),” he said. “We don’t swim anymore. We are establishing more public contacts and applying educational measures (on beach water contamination).

Pollution has also affected how these emergency responders stay prepared. They train in a pool in Coronado or in San Diego Bay, which “we thought was gross.” It’s clean water now,” Lindquist said.

When required to conduct open water rescues or patrols, lifeguards in Imperial Beach and Coronado use boats that both departments recently acquired to replace the use of jet skis or swimming as much as possible.

Imperial Beach patrol trucks are now equipped with flush kits installed on their roof racks “to wash us down before we get back in the truck” after entering the water, Lindquist said.

Imperial Beach lifeguard Lt. Art Ayala demonstrates a newly installed RinseKit, a mobile shower, to wash away seawater contaminated for years by sewage from the Tijuana River.

(KC Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

In Coronado, where only certain shorelines have been affected by sewage pollution, lifeguards now wear dry suits. Soon they will start wearing helmets with face shields “to protect (their faces) from splashes” and radio headsets that fully cover their ears, Carey said.

These measures are necessary, they said, because it is unclear what effects Tijuana’s sewage crisis has had on the health of rescuers.

Hans Fernan, 51, carried out numerous rescues in polluted waters before retiring as an Imperial Beach lifeguard 10 years ago. To this day, he said, “I constantly have problems with my sinuses, ears and lungs. »

“I can only relate this to the ocean, because I swam in that ocean all the time,” he said. “I don’t smoke, I’m not a big drinker, I run Ironman. …I shouldn’t have this constant sinus problem, this hoarse voice and this constant sputum like lung butter – phlegm in my lungs.

He was among several Imperial Beach lifeguards who filed “contaminated ocean exposure reports,” which city officials say are kept in employee medical records. The forms were implemented decades ago to record times when rescuers came into contact with contaminated water, city officials said. Lifeguards still fill them, sometimes even when they are not in contact with ocean water, officials say. Last year, more than 100 reports were filed and 11 so far this year, Lindquist said. Rescuers reported gastrointestinal problems, headaches, nausea, diarrhea and rashes.

Carey believes much more can be done to protect rescuers.

People walk along the coast in Imperial Beach as a lifeguard truck passes them Wednesday. The area’s water has been contaminated for years by sewage from the Tijuana River.

(KC Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

An ongoing effort

The Coronado captain represents San Diego County as an agency certifying agent for the US Life saving Association, or USLA. It is a national, nonprofit organization that establishes and maintains standards for open water lifeguards. Its California chapter has a professional standards committee, chaired by Carey.

“We are currently working on a single standard,” he said. “That standard is: How can we protect lifeguards who are exposed to contaminated water in the line of duty?

“We reviewed the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines for wastewater treatment plant employees, regulations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can have, which, as we discovered, do not apply to rescuers,” he added.

An OSHA spokesperson said it “has not been tracking the issue” of rescuers’ exposure to contaminated water.

The USLA, which has developed an open water rescue manual, also does not address the issue of contaminated water, Chris Brewster said. He is chairman of the USLA National Certification Committee and retired San Diego Lifeguard Chief.

Carey said the committee is drafting safety standards that would include the following:

• During training, educate lifeguards about what is in the water and what water quality test results mean;
• Offer vaccination based on what rescuers may be exposed to;
• Provide personal protective equipment such as dry suits, earplugs, helmets and gloves;
• Opt for patrol boats or nautical drones to avoid getting into the water during rescues;
• Local governments could issue citations to people who fail to comply with a health order, which would require lifeguards to conduct a rescue;
• Rescuers should receive specialized compensation and medical care in the event of exposure.

The aim is to establish and adopt guidelines at the regional level, and eventually at the national level.

“They need to be detailed and specific enough to address this problem, but ambiguous enough to be accepted nationally,” Carey said.

Brewster said standards for rescuers exposed to transboundary pollution could be developed in preparation for the next edition of the USLA manual.

“(B)ut as a national organization we must consider the breadth of application possibilities,” he said by email. “This is not an issue that affects other ocean rescuers that I am aware of.”

“Overall, I would like to emphasize that lifeguards occupy a unique position among security services in that it is impossible to fully protect them from exposure to the environmental conditions in which they work,” he said. added. “There are certainly steps that can be taken to minimize risk and these become increasingly appropriate when contamination is chronic, such as in south San Diego County.”

Matt Wilson, who teaches Imperial Beach’s Junior Lifeguard program, said the standards are necessary, but need to be carefully thought through.

“I don’t think we should name the people who jumped into the water,” he said. “I’m wary of it, but I’m supportive of having standards where (rescuers) can communicate that, in certain circumstances, ‘We won’t go in. We’ll throw something out instead.'”

In addition to purchasing new equipment, the cities of Coronado and Imperial Beach are taking other steps to support lifeguards.

In Coronado, rescuers have access to Company Nurse, a company that triages workplace accidents when they occur. Lindquist said he plans to bring the service to Imperial Beach.

“You call, talk to a real nurse about what you did and what you were exposed to and they help you,” he said. “It’s rather than waiting to incubate something in you and then going to (Human Resources) and getting clearance to go to (a medical clinic).”

Imperial Beach City Manager Tyler Foltz said the city is conducting a classification and compensation study for its marine safety department to assess equipment and staffing needs as well as compensation related to the ‘exposure. The results are expected to be presented to the city council later this year.

Signs warn people about contaminated seawater in Imperial Beach on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Water in the area has been contaminated for years by sewage from the Tijuana River.

(KC Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)