Staff Reports
The mess that keeps rolling up on San Diego beaches isn’t natural—it’s manmade and cross‑border. The newest development: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin returned to the San Diego area to give a public progress report on a binational memorandum of understanding with Mexico. This isn’t just another press photo; the agency is finally naming projects, timelines and the hard plumbing needed to stop millions of gallons of sewage from washing into American waters.
EPA in San Diego: From MOU to muscle
We should be glad the EPA moved from press releases to project lists. Administrator Lee Zeldin described a “permanent 100% solution” and spelled out what that means in plain terms—repair river gates, fix the failing Parallel Gravity sewer main, and divert about 10 million gallons per day of treated effluent away from the Tijuana River. They also plan to expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant. Those are the kinds of pipes and pumps that stop filth, not finger‑waving and memo exchanges.
What the plan actually includes
Don’t let the diplomatic handshake fool you: the MOU lays out concrete work on both sides of the border. Mexico, through Secretary Alicia Bárcena Ibarra’s office, has agreed to start the diversion and rehabilitation projects. The U.S. side is promising fast‑tracked construction and quarterly public updates. That’s the scoreboard we want to watch—who breaks ground, who finishes a pipeline, and who keeps showing up with excuses while beaches stay closed and families get sick.
Local relief while big solutions are built
Because infrastructure takes months or years, local leaders aren’t just sitting on their hands. San Diego County supervisors, led by Paloma Aguirre, redirected reserves for short‑term fixes: targeted hotspot cleanup, air purifiers for homes and schools, and a county health study to document real harms. Those are sensible stopgaps. But sensible stopgaps don’t replace the obligation to finish the big work and hold Mexico to its commitments—no more “later” or “we tried.”
Accountability, not applause
President Donald Trump and EPA officials deserve credit for pushing a binational deal and for returning to report on progress. But credit stops at work in the ground and measurable milestones. If the MOU is going to mean anything, quarterly public updates must show real construction milestones and Mexico must deliver the promised projects on schedule. The people of San Diego deserve clean water, clear air and beaches they can actually visit—anything less is just a press conference with a bad odor.
