[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 96 (Friday, July 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5849-H5850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         MEXICO POLLUTES BEACHES OF IMPERIAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, this weekend, the City of Imperial Beach, 
the most southwest lake community in the continental United States, is 
going to celebrate its 17th annual sand castle competition.
  Now, we hear many Members of the House come here and talk about great 
things in their communities. But, sadly, this is not going to be a 
great event unless things change over night. Sadly, we are going to be 
confronted by the fact that Mexico is sending down 25 million gallons 
of untreated raw sewage that may close the beaches of Imperial Beach 
for this great weekend for this community.
  Now, instead of being greeted by sand castles and happy children and 
families and blue sky and warm water and beautiful surf, the visitors 
of Imperial Beach may have to confront red pollution signs, not because 
they did not clean up their environment, not because they did not spend 
the money for infrastructure to make sure that they did not pollute, 
but because the United States allows a foreign government to violate 
American sovereignty and pollute American soil.
  Sadly, for the last 20 years, Mr. Speaker, we have stood by and 
watched a foreign country pollute our wildlife preserves and our 
beaches in southern California. And we have talked and we have 
negotiated. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars of American 
taxpayers' funds at trying to address this issue while negotiating with 
the Republic of Mexico.
  Now, this problem is something that most people do not understand. 
The Tijuana River flows through a major metropolitan area of over a 
million people and flows north into San Diego. And San Diego has been 
impacted by this.
  Now, the responsibility for cleaning up this mess, Mr. Speaker, is 
not a local, not a State, it is a Federal obligation, because it is 
crossing an international border. And if the people of Mexico do not 
care about what they are doing to their neighbors, and we all talk 
about being good neighbors, I think we can all understand, in a 
civilized society, being a good neighbor does not mean dumping your raw 
sewage into somebody else's neighborhood.
  I am asking the Congress and the President and the Senate and all of 
America to finally stand up and say, we are willing to confront our 
friends and our neighbors to the south about the environmental problems 
that are not just HIDTA and NAFTA but predate NAFTA, but it is time to 
do what good neighbors should do every once in a while, tell our 
neighbors to clean up their act, quit polluting our waters, quit 
destroying our sand castle competitions, quit endangering our children 
and our families.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time that Congress makes some firm, tough 
decisions about what we are willing to do to send that message across. 
I would ask us to consider that if Mexico is not sensitive to the fact 
that tourism has been destroyed in the City of Imperial Beach again and 
again over the last 20 years, we should consider a sensitivity lesson 
to the Republic of Mexico and consider if tourism going into Mexico 
from the United States is a guaranteed right that we want to continue 
as long as this pollution continues.
  I am not proposing any actions today, Mr. Speaker, but I am asking us 
to become aware that it is time that

[[Page H5850]]

this Congress, who talks about the environment, who gets involved in 
environmental issues all over this Nation, indeed the world, now be 
willing to stand up for the environment in our own soil that is 
crossing the border and start backing up our well-intentioned rhetoric 
with real action that will make sure that 18th sand castle competition 
in Imperial Beach is one that is clean, sunny and happy for both sides 
of the border.

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