Local leaders announced Thursday that they had sent a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency requesting help with the Tijuana Sewage Crisis in the South Bay.
County Board Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said, "Earlier this morning, we submitted our petition to the EPA for them to come and investigate whether the Tijuana River Valley should be declared a Superfund site."
A superfund allows the EPA to enter a declared 'hazardous waste site' area and clean up the contamination to help protect people’s health.
If that were to happen, the EPA would first have to do inspections to determine if the South Bay rises to level of a Superfund designation.
The mayor of Imperial Beach, Paloma Aguirre, said, "A superfund designation will unlock critical federal resources, expertise, and accountability to remove the toxic contaminates that have poisoned our soil, water, and air for generations."
The request to the EPA included testimonies from 500 residents living in Coronado, Imperial Beach, and beyond.
ABC 10News spoke with residents who said they were aware that a superfund designation could impact property values in the South Bay.
Coronado resident, Dan'l Steward, said, "It crosses everyone's radar that lives or works in Coronado. So it's already impacted. To deny it is useless. To solve the problem is where we are."
Imperial Beach resident Matt Henry said property values affected by the Superfund designation are not on his radar.
'That's not what's important," Henry said. "There are so many houses for sale because people don't want to live there, so it's already affecting property value.
Lawson-Remer's move to go directly to the EPA Thursday comes just weeks after San Diego County Supervisors voted to delay any decision on asking the federal government to get involved.
Board Chair Nora Vargas, who formerly expressed concerns over property value impacts, responded to Lawson-Remer's action Thursday and said, in part, "The declaration of a superfund site isn't a "silver bullet" that will solve all of our issues overnight, and in fact, can pose many problems of its own."
