[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1099-H1100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TIJUANA RIVER POLLUTION NEAR SAN DIEGO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Peters) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PETERS. Madam Speaker, I rise once again to address what could 
very well be one of the greatest ongoing environmental disasters in the 
United States. I am referring to the billions of gallons of raw sewage, 
industrial waste, and other pollutants that flow down the Tijuana River 
and into San Diego's coastal waters.
  These flows sicken our communities, shutter our local businesses, 
harm our tourism industry, endanger wildlife, and threaten our 
servicemembers and Border Patrol agents stationed in San Diego.
  Just last month, researchers at San Diego State University released a 
report that shows that this pollution also poses a massive public 
health threat. The studies they cite reveal extremely troubling 
findings, like the fact that cancer-causing chemicals banned in the 
United States decades ago, including DDT and PCBs, have been found in 
the soil.
  Waterborne contaminants include viruses like SARS-CoV-2, salmonella, 
listeria, hep B and C, and pathogens carrying antibiotic-resistant 
genes.

[[Page H1100]]

  The report cites a recent study of bottlenose dolphins that had 
become stranded and died in San Diego waters. The dolphins died from 
sepsis caused by water contaminated by feces. This is the same water 
our troops train in and our kids swim and surf in.
  Avoiding the water alone will not make you safe. Air quality monitors 
that were recently installed in the region have confirmed what 
residents have known for years, that the air itself is also polluted. 
Sewage that washes up on land dries, sending dangerous levels of 
hydrogen sulfide into the air around people's homes.
  The solution is simple. The United States owns and operates a 
wastewater treatment plant on our side of the border that has not been 
maintained. It is in desperate need of repair and expansion to handle 
the flows. President Biden included $310 million in his supplemental 
funding request that would make those repairs and upgrades possible. 
This is a small price to pay for the health of our community, our brave 
servicemembers, and our environment.
  Many of the communities hit hardest by this pollution are low-income 
communities of color. I can't help but think if this was happening 
somewhere that wasn't 3,000 miles from here, like the Chesapeake Bay or 
even the Great Lakes, it would have been taken care of long ago.

  We know that Mexico must also do its part. Much of their 
infrastructure has also fallen into disrepair. The good news is that 
Mexico is bound by a treaty we signed in San Diego in 2022 to spend 
nearly $150 million to fix their treatment plant.
  Mexico, to its credit, has made great strides in the last year. They 
have repaired and replaced key infrastructure, like sewage pipes that 
redirect the contaminated water, and they have broken ground on a new 
wastewater treatment plant.
  Madam Speaker, this is a public health, business, and national 
security disaster. The more we delay in addressing cross-border 
pollution, the more costly and difficult it will be to fix. I urge my 
colleagues to support this funding and ask that congressional 
leadership and appropriators include this funding in any upcoming 
spending package.

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