Tijuana River Explodes With Trash & Sewage

[click any image in this blog for a larger view]

As written about previously in this blog…the Tijuana River crosses from Mexico into the US in extreme southern San Diego County. The important things to know about this unique regional feature are that:

1) There are little or no recycling programs in Baja California; nor is trash collection there at the standard that US residents are accustomed to.

2) Sewage plumbing and processing in Tijuana is not at the standard that US residents are accustomed to.

3) Some Tijuana residents use old tires to construct earthen retaining walls in the loose, crumbling local soil.

4) Three quarters of the Tijuana River watershed is located in Mexico.

5) The local topology is not flat – and is characterized as mesas and canyons.

6) When it rains hard in this region, the outfall of this river is the transport mechanism for mind-boggling volumes of sediment, garbage, sewage, tires, debris and…yes, plastics as they race to the nearby ocean.

7) On the US side, the Tijuana River estuary can act as a partial “filter”, capturing some of what flows downstream, before it gets to the ocean.

8) Not everything that flows down the river is stopped before it makes its way to the ocean.

9) Each time it rains, a new layer of infectious sediment and debris is deposited atop the last one, creating a stratified riverbed comprised primarily of layer upon layer of mud, tires and miscellaneous flotsam.

Surfrider San Diego created “No B.S.” (border sewage), a campaign designed to bring attention and action to this multi-tiered problem. It has partnered with the Tijuana River Citizens Council and other enviro groups raise awareness to the problem and to grow all attempts at capturing and stopping the debris flow – as well as to extract the deposited items during dry episodes. No blame is placed as to the source of the problem – it is known as a “cross-border” situation that both countries need to address.


[click any image in this blog for a larger view]

The team has made available scores of photos (here and here and here), and maintain their own blog with more details of the problem, related stories (from both sides of the border) and information on how you may be able to help.

Take time to at least look at the eye-popping photos...and don't believe the line that "it never rains in California"!

Check 'em out, help 'em out and buena suerte a todos!

Cross-border Plastics - 1440 Bottles/day, Two Lightbulbs

In San Diego, we are (still) battling an ancient and ongoing problem which is unique to our local geography and regional political boundaries: sewage and trash washes across the border from Mexico into the US in San Diego County when the rains eventually come to sunny California & Baja. The Mexican city across the border, Tijuana, is largely unable to stop the flow, for many reasons, the main one being that the riverbed’s uphill watershed sits mainly on the Mexican side, with the sea-level riverbed finishing it’s flow to the ocean on the US side. That’s the simple explanation – believe me that it’s waaaaay/mucho more involved than that, but for our Rise Above Plastics concerns that’s all we need to know for now. (Surfrider’s Dan Murphy and the Tijuana river Citizen’s Council and others have even formed a coalition, cleverly named “NO B.S.” [the B.S. part mainly means “Border Sewage] to try to fix the problem – wish us luck! Check out the NO B.S. blog. Lotsa good photos 'n stuff there.)

What’s this got to do with plastics? Well, the Tijuana River valley empties into the ocean, which means that the trash (lotsa plastic and tires)…empties…into…the…ocean. The photos in a recent Voice of San Diego story show the extent of the trash problem – repeated smaller storms lay down layers of trash and sand, and larger storms that come along wash that stratified trash out the estuary and into the sea.

To see for myself, I made the 20 minute ride down there on a rainy day last year (bad one – horses died in the flooding that day). I was a tad underwhelmed to see only about one-plastic-bottle-per-minute float by, along with the trees, etc being flushed out in the chocolate-colored water. ONLY ONE PER MINUTE?? But, do the math grasshoppah – that’s 60 minutes per hour times 24 hours to a day = 1440 bottles added to the oceanic trash heap in that day alone – yikes! My little brain then tried to imagine how many semi-Third World rivers dump into the ocean around the globe – in areas muuuch more rainy than So Cal – double yikes! (Light bulb above the head) We have a major problem here…!

It’s surprising that we were ever surprised that the Pacific’s “floating trash heap” even existed – (light-bulb above head, again - DING!) OF COURSE, where else would all that stuff go off to? We/I/old-conventional-“thinking” always just figured that it went “away” – out of sight, out of mind, y’know?

At least we now know where “away” is =====> our silent oceans.