California is riddled with problems its leaders can’t fix, starting with high housing costs and high levels of homelessness. But what should drive San Diegans crazy is that on one of the region’s biggest problems — the nightmare of sewage that closes beaches, sickens people and causes a stench that spreads ever into the South Bay — elected officials know exactly how to fix it. They could do so by quickly improving poor infrastructure in Tijuana and, to a much lesser extent, on the U.S. side of the border. They simply don’t act. Instead, we see a slow-motion federal response that, in five years, could produce major progress.
That’s ridiculous. This isn’t a daunting technological challenge. If this emergency were treated as such, improvements could be made in months. It shouldn’t be a funding challenge. The Mexican and U.S. governments should be able to immediately provide $1 billion or $2 billion to fix our massive quality-of-life problem. But U.S. leaders never lecture Mexican authorities about how inexcusable it is that Tijuana’s sewage fouls our shores. Nor, for the most part, will elected leaders demand more from those in power in the U.S. The recent report that raw sewage fouling our shoreline hit a record 44 billion gallons in 2023 underscores how incredible it is that neither President Joe Biden nor Gov. Gavin Newsom will declare a state of emergency.
Where is San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s outrage? Where is Chula Vista Mayor John McCann? Why can’t they join the mayor of the hardest hit city, Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach, in demanding change? Why do elected officials buy into Dianne Feinstein’s mantra that those who expect the federal government to act quickly don’t understand how government works?
As the editorial board wrote in 2019, we understand this, but we do not accept it. I wish this opinion were much more widespread.
There is a huge problem we know how to fix. Get on with it.
