[Breitbart] The Trump administration has secured an agreement with Mexico to ensure a solution to the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis, with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin calling it a "massive environmental and national security win."
Zeldin met with his Mexican counterpart, Alicia Bárcena, in Mexico City on Thursday to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the countries to stop the flow of raw, untreated sewage polluting southern California.
The city of Tijuana’s sewage pollution crisis has been forcing San Diego beaches closed and making Americans sick for years as the mismanagement grew worse, Breitbart News reported.
According to the San Diego Coastkeeper, the issue "is primarily attributed to a combination of outdated infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, and natural factors."
"The core of the issue lies in the sewage treatment plant’s inability to cope with the volume of wastewater generated by Tijuana’s rapid population growth and urban expansion," environmental lawyer Phillip Musegaas wrote in May 2024. "Many of the city’s sewer lines and the treatment facility itself are antiquated and were not designed to handle such a heavy load, leading to frequent overflows and breakdowns."
In all fairness, California's government has also neglected infrastructure while encouraging rapid population growth, suburban sprawl and, lately, massive new apartment complexes all over the place. Roads, parking, schools, hospitals, water and power are all inadequate. And then there are the infamous failures of wild fire protection. But at least the sewers work...for now.
Whatever the reason for Mexico’s wastewater management problems, over 100 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with industrial chemicals and garbage have poured into the Tijuana River and San Diego County since 2018, the Associated Press reported.
Just this April, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond (R) revealed the troubling news that U.S. Navy SEALs were "transported" from Coronado to Oceanside "to get to cleaner water" due to many of them getting sick from the millions of gallons of sewage being dumped every day, Breitbart News reported.
The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty known as "Minute 328" to deal with the crisis in 2022, with the Mexican government committing $144 million and the U.S. committing $350 million to sewage management projects.
I suppose we must pay that $350 million or else the sewage will never get treated but I'd much rather keep that money in this country and I would never give Mexico one more penny until the project is completed. I pisses me off the way they claim poverty. Mexico has abundant natural resources and should be a wealthy, blue chip country. Hell, they could use some of that plata that they get from the cartels. That sewage pollutes Mexican beaches too but I guess they just don't care and that says something about them.
Zeldin revealed Thursday that Mexico still has yet to obligate a whopping $93 million of those funds, but that would change with the new MOU.
"Mexico will obligate the remaining $93 million of Minute 328 funds that they hadn’t yet obligated," an EPA press release states.
I'm not holding my breath...unless I get too close to Imperial Beach.
The deadline for Minute 328 projects has also been moved up, and several side projects in Mexico have been added to the docket to account for Tijuana’s future population growth and maintenance costs.
The projects must now be completed no later than December 31, 2027 — four years ahead of schedule, in some cases.
"The Trump Administration is proud to deliver this massive environmental and national security win for Americans in the San Diego area who have been living with this disgusting raw sewage flowing into their communities for far too long," Zeldin said in a statement.
The MOU comes after Zeldin’s tour of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant on the American-Mexican border and a previous meeting with Bárcena back in April, with the administrator concluding that the issue needed to be handled with "extreme urgency."
The administrator thanked Bárcena and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for their cooperation in a social media post:
link goes to X
I still haven't figured out how to insert posts from X.
| Here you go: |
The Trump Admin is excited to deliver this MASSIVE environmental and national security win for Americans in the San Diego area who have been suffering for decades, living with disgusting raw sewage flowing into their communities from Tijuana, Mexico.
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) July 24, 2025
Since my visit to San Diego… pic.twitter.com/r3puajVAkH
But I wouldn't thank Barcena or Shienbaum until the sewage is actually being effectively treated. Even then I probably wouldn't thank them since we paid for most of it.
I do better with pictures and this is what the Tijuana River looks like. Be grateful the picture doesn't convey the smell.
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| Raw sewage, fecal matter, toilet paper, et al, flowing West in the Tijuana River towards the Tijuana Slooughs just south of Imperial Beach. Dave Gatley/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images |
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