California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the deployment of $46 million in voter-approved funding to help clean up the chronically contaminated Tijuana River at the California-Mexico border.

Tijuana River Pollution

Since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons of raw sewage filled with industrial chemicals and trash have poured into the Tijuana River, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission. The United States and Mexico signed an agreement last year to clean up the longstanding problem by upgrading wastewater plants to keep up with Tijuana’s population growth and industrial waste from factories, many owned by U.S. companies.

The funding will come from Proposition 4, a $10 billion bond measure approved in 2024 to fund water, climate, wildfire and natural resource projects across the state. At least 40% of the money is supposed to be spent on communities hardest hit by climate change and environmental pollution.

The raw, foul-smelling sewage that empties into the Pacific Ocean also emits hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that can erode neurons in the nose and trigger asthma attacks, and cause symptoms such as headaches, nausea, cough, shortness of breath, skin and eye irritation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Call for Federal Action

Newsom called on the federal government to find a permanent fix to the Tijuana River crisis, stating that California has stepped up repeatedly but cannot solve the problem alone.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.