Tijuana River Sewage: Why San Diego Must Demand Accountability

The Tijuana River does not recognize a border. Sewage, storm runoff, and industrial discharge flow north into Imperial Beach, the Coronado Islands, and our nearshore ecosystems regardless of which side of the line they originate. This week, a federal agency renewed a contract with a sewage treatment operator that has been sued multiple times for violating the Clean Water Act—a decision that illustrates how fragmented accountability can undermine water quality across the entire region.

For homeowners and contractors in San Diego, East County, and South County, the message is clear: your own disposal choices matter because they feed into a system that is already under strain. When you dump materials illegally, you're adding to a burden that cross-border treatment facilities already struggle to handle. When you dispose hazardously without proper separation, you're compounding the problem.

California's new packaging and plastic rules, approved this spring, represent one layer of systemic change. But that takes years to implement. What you can control now is whether your renovation debris, yard waste, and hazardous materials go to licensed facilities with documented compliance records, or into the informal economy.

Ask your hauler where material actually goes. Request receipts. Know the facility name. If it's a hazmat load—paint, solvents, batteries, fluorescent tubes—demand proof of proper handling. This is not bureaucracy; it's the only way to ensure your waste does not become someone else's waterway crisis.

San Diego sits downstream from Tijuana and upstream from the Pacific. We have a civic responsibility to manage what leaves our properties with the same rigor we demand from anyone treating what arrives here.