After finally agreeing to work with San Diego County to investigate the environmental and health impacts of the decades-long cross-border sewage crisis, the federal government has suddenly gone silent.
Under orders from the incoming Trump administration, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services directed all federal employees to refrain from having any communications with any outside agency through at least the end of the month.
The pause thrusts efforts to address pervasive pollution in the Tijuana River Valley into a state of flux. The executive order blocks the release of the results of a federal survey measuring the community’s health and bars talks with federal scientists on the ground in San Diego County working with regional health officials.
Rep. Juan Vargas, a Democrat who represents the 52nd Congressional District, said “we’re going to be watching carefully to ensure promises are kept.”
“Under the last Administration, we began a construction project to expand the South Bay treatment plant, launched a CDC study into potential public health impacts, and received federal support for air quality monitoring in the South Bay,” Vargas said. “The Trump Administration must continue to support these commitments.”
After the pause was announced in a Jan. 21 memo, the county quickly learned that hard-fought gains would be temporarily halted.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which conducted an online survey in collaboration with the county from October through November, told the county it was also unable “to participate in the regular all-agency meetings for TJRV (Tijuana River Valley) due to the federal executive order,” county spokesperson Tim McClain said in an email.
County officials recently said they expected to receive those results early this year, especially after releasing earlier this month a report about a similar survey led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that validated concerns about people’s health worsening from exposure to untreated wastewater and air from the polluted river.
Similarly, the CDC has also halted communications with the county regarding the report, known as the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, or CASPER.
Additionally, a CDC Epidemiology and Immunization Services officer who has served from within the county’s Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch over the past year “is no longer able to participate in County-related matters,” McClain added.
“The County is continuing to monitor changes at the federal level and their potential impacts to County operations while providing services representative of the communities we support guided by our vision, mission and values,” he said.
The executive order comes a week after the ATSDR announced that it would investigate the potential harm caused by exposure to hydrogen sulfide in the air near the Tijuana River and issue recommendations to protect the public if warranted. It’s unclear whether launching the public health assessment will be impacted.
A separate and now rescinded federal executive order that attempted to freeze federal grants and loans also stirred questions Wednesday among the county Board of Supervisors about the county’s chance at $4.2 million in grant funding to remove trash and sediment from the Tijuana River Valley. Dahvia Lynch, general manager of the county’s Land Use and Environment Dept., told supervisors that county staff was “looking across the board not only at this grant, but any other pending grants that we have from various federal organizations to examine what the potential impact would be if we do or don’t receive those.”
In the meantime, the county will be using $750,000 from its Capital Outlay Fund to continue cleanup efforts in the river valley, including in areas that are the city of San Diego’s property and have been historically maintained by the city.
Also on Wednesday, county supervisors agreed to convene a special meeting in the coming months with state Legislative and Congressional members and agencies tackling the sewage crisis to develop new efforts as a united front.
The county will invite state and federal officials to co-host the meeting and invite all other stakeholders in what’s expected to be set up with various panels. Topics to be discussed include immediate health impacts, the status of wastewater infrastructure projects on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and long-term environmental remediation. Attendees can expect presentations on those efforts and a time for questions.
Convening a meeting comes after a previous board meeting where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told supervisors that it would not explore a potential Superfund designation for the Tijuana River Valley, in part because a petition did not identify a specific location within the six-mile stretch of the lower river valley to conduct sampling.
“I want us to take some responsibility as the lead public health agency in the region to bring these stakeholders together to say, ‘Hey, let’s get to it. What’s not getting done and how do we get the right people moving in the direction,” said Terra Lawson-Remer, who is acting chair and proposed the motion.
Reports of Tijuana sewage leaking over the border into south San Diego County communities stretch back at least to the 1930s, but those living and working there say pollution is the worst it has ever been.
Improvements to wastewater treatment plants are underway on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, which are expected to gradually improve water quality conditions. Still, officials and advocates argue that more work is needed to prioritize keeping the Tijuana River dry from sewage flows during dry seasons.
