Border Patrol agents assigned to the U.S.-Mexico border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California, may soon see relief from the decades-long health threat of raw sewage and toxic chemicals freely flowing from Mexico into the United States.
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing $300 million to fund the architectural, engineering, planning, design, and construction of wastewater facilities along the entire southern border, including the Tijuana River Valley, which stretches several miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, an EPA spokeswoman wrote in an email Thursday. The money is part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act, which will have to pass Congress.
Unrestrained run-offs of ugly green and brown liquids have caused both figurative and literal headaches for U.S. Border Patrol agents, who sit for hours at a time in their vehicles or patrol this part of the border on foot. The U.S. side of the border is at a lower elevation than the Mexican side, so liquids dumped into the Mexican river flow north into California and then into the ocean.
Some sewage is intentionally dumped in Mexico with the full knowledge that it will end up as a gruesome export to the U.S. In December 2018, as many as 7 million gallons of raw sewage poured into the Mexican river daily for a week.
The Imperial Beach, California, community frequently sees its beach closed after rainstorms, which prompt the river and its pollutants to run out into the ocean. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, commissioned a study in 2019 to examine the health effects that working in the area had on agents and found agents were exposed to 710 times more arsenic, five times more lead, seven times more uranium, and 1,135 times more hexavalent chromium than local tap water.
After the study, the CBP installed personal and vehicle wash centers at Border Patrol stations so agents could “reduce exposure to contaminants and minimize cross contamination” by hosing down after their shift and before driving out to main roads. Vehicles had special cabin filters installed to improve internal air quality. Agents were also given personal protective equipment, including gloves, respirators, masks, privacy tents, disposable clothing, and towels.
“Oftentimes, agents sitting here all day will experience sore throats, headaches. That’s very common,” Border Patrol agent and regional spokesman Justin Castrejon said during an inspection of the region the Washington Examiner made last July. “Exposure has led to rashes.”
In one case, in 2010, an agent with direct exposure picked up a flesh-eating bacteria and retired for medical reasons.
The San Diego Port, Chula Vista, and Imperial Beach signed onto a San Diego Surfrider Foundation lawsuit against the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission on the basis that the federal agency has violated the Clean Water Act by ignoring the problem for decades. The city of San Diego and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra also sued.
Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that stated the International Boundary and Water Commission was unable to fix the problem and ordered Congress to take action to solve it, which led to this proposal.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the $300 million would go solely to the Tijuana River Valley, not the entire border.
