San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to consider whether to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to inspect the Tijuana River Valley
Christopher Harris still remembers the melted rubber soles of a Border Patrol officer’s work boots from a few years ago.
“I believe that, in addition to fixing the treatment plants, which, of course is urgent, we need to simultaneously be pursuing a long-term solution to get this estuary cleaned up and protect the health of our entire community,” said county Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who is bringing the proposal to her board colleagues. “Even once we fix the discharge problem, there could be a decade’s worth of garbage bubbling up.
The program allows the EPA to identify and, if necessary, remediate hazardous substances. It also makes the parties responsible for polluting the sites to pay for the cleanups. According to the federal agency’s website, when there is no viable responsible party, Superfund provides the funding through environmental excise taxes on chemicals.
As of Oct. 1, more than 1,300 sites were on the list, 42 are proposed and nearly 460 have been removed, according to the EPA’s website. In California, there are 114 sites and Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base is the only one in San Diego County. It was added because of the millions of gallons of untreated wastewater from Mexico it has carried daily for years. Multiple reports, in addition to the Border Patrol’s, have found hundreds of chemical contaminants in the river water and soil.
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