SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – There’s new faces and heads of a major federal agencies. The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency stated he looks forward to coming to the South Bay to see the impact of the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis.
The EPA sent the following statement from Administrator Zeldin, “Mexico must fully honor its commitment to control their country’s growing pollution and sewage impacting the United States. The time when excuses, delays, or exceptions are tolerated is over. EPA will ramp up our efforts with all other involved agencies on both sides of the border to confront this crisis head on. I look forward to visiting the border in the near future to view this issue firsthand, meet with elected officials, and ensure permanent solutions are urgently implemented to stop years of Mexican sewage impacting the U.S.”
ABC 10News spoke with local leaders in the South Bay about their thoughts on Zeldin's statement.
“Oh, it was perfect. I think we are finally making progress,” Chula Vista Mayor John McCann said.
“It’s good that it’s on his radar. It’s good that he’s getting daily briefings,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said.
There’s a cautious sense of optimism from Aguirre with the new administration after previous statements and actions from the Washington D.C. on the crisis.
“I want to make sure we educate them, we bring them up to speed,” Aguirre said.
McCann told ABC 10News the statement from Zeldin gave him good optimism.
“I’m looking forward to welcoming when he does come out to actually see the damage that the crisis is doing,” McCann said.
ABC 10News has spoken with both South Bay leaders before on their previous efforts to communicate with Zeldin on the crisis since he was confirmed into the position.
McCann spoke previously about reaching connections he has who were close to the EPA Administrator to express the needs of the region.
Last week, ABC 10News with Aguirre about how her letter to Zeldin to reconsider a Superfund designation from the EPA for the crisis was rejected.
While some of the responses haven’t been what some have wanted, there’s hope there can be some action, given what Zeldin has stated.
“Everybody comes and visits the treatment plant. The treatment plant’s taken care of. It’s under construction. That’s not the source of pollution,” Aguirre said. What I want him to see is the river itself. The river is what’s carrying all of this pollution that's becoming aerosolized.”
“We need people at the top to be able to escalate this issue there to be able to get things done,” McCann said.
ABC 10News also reached out to Commissioner of the United States International Boundary and Water Dr. Maria-Elena Giner for comment on Zeldin’s statement.
She said, "I appreciate EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's attention to this issue and will keep him as well as all our stakeholders informed of Mexico's progress. In fact, I am in Washington, D.C., today to update members of Congress on our plans to tackle the pollution situation on four fronts: rehabilitation and expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant; spending more than $30 million in repairs to the plant; monitoring Mexico’s sanitation infrastructure improvements; and taking urgent actions to eliminate dry-weather transboundary flows, including binational inspections, satellite imagery, water data from Tijuana’s water utility, and commissioner-level meetings."
