State and City Leaders gathered at City Hall Chambers in Chula Vista Friday, with the purpose of getting an update on what's happening with the cross border pollution issue in the South Bay.
Among the crowd who attended this meeting was Sofia Garcia and her family. She’s a 6th grader at Cooke Elementary.
She says she’s been following what’s been happening with the cross-border pollution in the Tijuana River Valley, and felt it was important to get involved.
Garcia adds, “We do need to value students’ perspectives future because we are the future generation these strikes, important issues that affect our world affects us because we will be inheriting these issues."
This meeting was organized by State Senator Alex Padilla, there were Representatives from the EPA, the US International Boundary and Water Commission, as well as Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre.
Abc10news caught up with Aguirre before the meeting as she laid out the city’s dire need for help.
She believes this is a public safety issue.
Aguirre says, “"People have been reporting headaches , nausea , dizziness related to these odors but we also have clusters of infections."
Before the meeting we took those concerns to Senator Padilla.
He says, “Information is power right .. and one of the things the state has done is secure 3 million dollars for Scripps institute to develop a tool that can show what are the health impacts. how far do they go. what are the nature of the impacts. “
He says while a long term solution still needs to be found, it all starts with asking the questions and holding people accountable for what’s happening.
All part of the lessons Sofia says she’s taking in as she sees government in action.
She adds, “Apart of this is making sure both sides of the border need to take a part in this. and it is a big issue that needs to be resolved.”
