LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday he is making available $46 million in voter-approved funding to help clean up cross-border pollution in the chronically contaminated Tijuana River and the New River at the California-Mexico border. Since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons (378 billion liters) of raw sewage filled with industrial chemicals and trash have poured into the Tijuana River, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission. The United States and Mexico signed an agreement last year to clean up the longstanding problem by upgrading wastewater plants to keep up with Tijuana’s population growth and industrial waste from factories, many owned by U.S. companies.For years, tens of thousands of people have and continue to be exposed to the sewage. During a February visit to San Diego, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said it will take a couple of years to fix one of the nation’s worst and longest-running environmental crises that affects largely low-income Latino communities.
“People in San Diego County shouldn’t have to worry about getting sick, losing access to their beaches, and living with polluted air,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a news release.
