The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has agreed to investigate potential health risks associated with sewage that flows into the Tijuana River and across the border into southern San Diego County.
CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in a letter last week that the agency's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry collects environmental sample data from federal, state and local health agencies on health risks posed by contaminants in water, soil and air.
Cohen wrote that a typical review process — collecting data, determining whether the data is sufficient, and then determining whether exposure to the contaminants poses health risks — could take six to 12 months. Cohen said the length of the review process would depend on “the form and complexity of the data received.”
Cohen's letter was in response to a joint request in May from local lawmakers for an investigation into the impacts of sewage contamination on South Bay residents in communities such as Imperial Beach, Coronado and other neighborhoods south of San Diego. The request asked for an analysis of whether the impacts of sewage are linked to “an increase in gastrointestinal illnesses and other symptoms reported by local residents.”
“Thanks to our request, the CDC has committed to opening an investigation into possible health hazards from contamination in the Tijuana River Valley, which is good news for South San Diego. We will continue to work to address this contamination, but we need to fully understand its impacts on the health of our community, and this is an important step,” Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, one of the co-authors of the May request to the CDC, said in a statement.
Four San Diego-area lawmakers who called on the CDC to investigate the issue also introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024 earlier this year to establish a new federal program to provide grants for public health and water quality restoration projects in the Tijuana River Basin.
The San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services also asked the CDC in June to investigate the potential health effects of the billions of gallons of raw sewage that have flowed into San Diego County over the years.
Earlier this year, the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission announced that more than 44 billion gallons of water will flow across the border in 2023, the most since 2000, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
In response to the county's response, Cohen wrote that the CDC would deploy EPIAID, described as a “short-term, rapid response effort to assist public health officials in investigating and managing serious public health issues.”
