Join Fox News to access this content
You have reached your maximum number of articles. Log in or create a free account to continue reading.
By entering your email to continue, you agree to Fox News Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This includes notifications of financial incentives.
Please enter a valid email address.
Are there any problems? click here.
The US and Mexico are one step closer to ending a permanent sewage crisis that erupts across the border into waters off the coast of San Diego, Environmental Protection Agency Chiefley Zeldin announced.
“This week, the EPA told Mexico a “100% solution” to permanently end the decades-old sewage crisis that flows from Mexico to the United States. Next, the technology groups from both countries will work through the details necessary to reach an emergency agreement,” Zeldin posted on X on Friday.
Zeldin visited San Diego last month, where he announced consultations with Mexican government counterparts, ending decades of issues. The issue has denounced outdated wastewater infrastructure and has been on the rise for decades, but has been in a spiral in recent years as Tijuana’s population has skyrocketed.
Sewer not only threatened San Diego’s large tourism industry and local residents, but also polluting the water that U.S. Navy seal members and candidates train, pose a national security risk.
EPA Chief Zeldin begins talks with Mexico and ends the sewage crashing into Navy Seals’ San Diego.
The US Navy Special Warfare Command is headquartered in San Diego, where Navy Seal Candidates complete a painstaking six-month basic underwater dismantling/sealing (BUD/S) training at Navy Amphibious Base Coronado.
In February, Department of Defense inspectors issued a report that between January 2019 and May 2023, Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal disease among candidates for seals between January 2019 and May 2023, resulting from contaminated water.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin will be attending a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House’s oval office on March 13, 2025 (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
A veteran who spoke with Fox News Digital in April described contaminated water as a national security crisis.
“This is a huge national crisis,” Navy Seal Veterinarian Jeff Gum, who was sick with water while doing seal training in 2008, told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview last month. “Like half of the Seal team is in San Diego, the other half is in Virginia Beach. So, if you have half of the Seal teams exposed to this, that’s a big problem.”
EPA chief assumes Mexico’s “sewage crisis” and naval seals flow into US waters on trains
Zeldin added that last month he and his counterparts in Mexico began honest consultations to update their infrastructure and water management facilities, bringing them to zero in “details.”
Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum speaks during the briefing. (Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Lightrocket)
“If you don’t do all the other projects now and all you do is clean up the current pollution, that feeling-good moment will last about a day,” Zeldin said at a press conference held in San Diego last month. “We have to stop the flow. Mexico needs to play its part in cleaning up the contamination they have caused.”
Mexico is addicted to Southern California due to border crisis
“Mexico will need to commit to all the projects that will stop the flow, but also to its final cleanup in order to actually finish this project,” he added.
Aerial view of sewage water flowing through Playa Blanca Beach on the Tijuana coast of Mexico on March 21, 2024 (Getty Images)
Zeldin first addressed the sewage issue in March before previewing a trip to take on the issue.
“I just explained that Mexico is dumping a lot of raw sewage into the Tijuana River and now it’s infiltrating the US,” he posted on X on March 8th.
Local leaders have issued warnings about sewage issues. Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre wrote to Zeldin in March to explain how raw sewage caused one of the “most frightening environmental and public health disasters in America.”
We are the Mexican sewage gushing into the waters of Navy Seal Training.”
Aerial views of Tijuana, Top, San Diego, California, Mexico (Getty Images)
“Toxic sewage across the border from Mexico to South San Diego County is one of America’s most frightening environmental and public health disasters,” said Aguirre’s March 3rd March to Zeldin, published online. “Since 2023, more than 31 billion gallons of raw sewage, contaminated rainwater and trash have flowed across the Mexican border, down the Tijuana River, through the cities of San Diego and Imperial Beach, into the Pacific Ocean.”
“Our residents are sick due to polluted air,” the letter continued. “Workers, including naval seal training in the area, are sick at work due to waterborne and aerosolized diseases. Many homeowners know if it’s safe to go outside as they are forced to place air quality monitors on their property.
The San Diego Tourism Bureau previously reported that San Diego attracts around 32 million tourists after international treasures, including other government bonds such as New York City, New Orleans and Washington, DC.
San Diego suburbs face a “sewage crisis” from local beaches
During a visit to San Diego last month, Zeldin vowed to end the issue as Californians endured themselves in the crisis.
Seal Class will take part in a surf passage training exercise at Coronado, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, California. (Getty Images)
“The Americans on our side of the border that have dealt with this have been out of patience for decades,” Zeldin said at a press conference Tuesday in San Diego. “There’s no way we can stand in front of the Californians and ask them to have more patience. And we were stuck in the next 10, 20, 30 years, 12 feet of raw sewage and we didn’t go anywhere.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
“So we’re all out of patience,” he continued. “There are very limited opportunities. What we are being conveyed by the New Mexico president on both the American and Mexican side is a strong desire to fully resolve this situation.”
Source link
