On April 12, San Diego Coastkeeper went on a Tijuana border tour led by WiLDCOAST’s Serge Dedina and Paloma Aguirre. The story of the day was the 2 million gallon sewage spill that flowed from the Tijuana River to Imperial Beach. Government failed to promptly notify the public and as result, surfers and swimmers were using the water for almost a week before they became aware that the waters were tainted by sewage.
“It’s bad enough to have polluted water,” Serge said, “it’s worse when federal and international agencies don’t do their job.”
As Rob Davis noted in a Voice of San Diego piece, “The incident is just one symptom of a major pollution problem that has plagued San Diego’s coast for decades, one that was supposed to have been fixed 15 years ago but that’s been dragged down by missed deadlines, bureaucratic bungling and local infighting.”
Everywhere we went in Tijuana we saw waste tires. Waste tires are not only a huge problem for those living in Tijuana, but waste tires also have significant health, environment and economic impacts on this side of the border. When it rains trash, sewage and tires from Tijuana flow from Mexico across the border into the United States. Waste tire cleanups are a constant on both sides of the border. For example, in a recent cleanup at the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park volunteers collected more than 600 tires in a four hour period. Wildcoast’s Ben McCue noted, “A lot of those tires actually originated in California. (The tires) went over to Mexico, were not disposed of correctly and many came back here.” This is not the kind of recycling story any of us want to hear.
In Tijuana’s Laureles Canyon we had the opportunity to see the impact an organization like Wildcoast can have on a community. Through the efforts of Paloma Aguirre and Wildcoast locals are not only working to rid the community of trash and tires, but community members are actually policing the area and serving notice to would be dumpsters that such conduct will not be tolerated. But best of all is found up on top of one of the Laureles Canyon hills where Four Walls International, Wildcoast, Tijuana Calidad De Vida and Tijuana Estuary partnered on building a green community center made of 450 waste tires and other trash. The plan is to use the same construction to build homes in Laureles Canyon. This collaboration also trains residents on how to manage trash and human waste.
Bravo! It’s really simple: find an environmental harm and fix the problem. Perfect solution? No, but it is a step in the right direction. That’s what the hokey pokey is all about!
Power Outage Sewage Spill Victory Almost Here
Written by Travis Pritchard
The region-wide power outage last September caused massive sewage spills when two pump stations that lacked adequate backup power failed and discharged into local creeks. Our volunteer water monitors found evidence of the 3.5-million gallons of sewage pooled in Los Peñasquitos Creek slowly releasing into the fragile Peñasquitos lagoon.
After the discovery, San Diego Coastkeeper sprang into action. We alerted the city of San Diego and the Department of Fish and Game about the stagnant pool of polluted water. We offered our years of background data at that site to the city to help them with their cleanup. We performed follow-up testing of the water in the creek and in the lagoon to monitor the cleanup and shared that data with the public, the Regional Water Control Board, the city’s stormwater department and the Peñasquitos Lagoon Foundation. We gave public testimony at the San Diego City Council’s Committee on Natural Resources and Culture Committee about the effects of the spill and the need to prevent spills like this from ever happening again.
All of our hard work has paid off. I would like to commend the City of San Diego wastewater officials who put forward a plan to ensure nothing like this happens again. They are seeking to install generators on the pump stations that lack adequate backup power. (Read our press release responding to the wastewater official's plan.) This backup power will ensure the pumps work properly during future power disruptions. The City Council now needs to step up provide them the tools and money they need to make this happen. I encourage the City Council to do what is right and help protect our fragile water resources against similar failures.
This also demonstrates the power that our community has when we work together to find and fix pollution problems. And this is a new emphasis for San Diego Coastkeeper. Around here we call it "watchdogging" to ensure our waters in San Diego County are protected. Sound exciting? Please join our efforts by volunteering to help us patrol for pollution or donating to be a part of the solution.
Have you seen that Kohler commercial where a man sees a pretty lady plumber walk into the house next door? He goes inside and starts flushing a bunch of junk down his toilet, presumably so he can have an excuse to call the pretty plumber. The man is exasperated when everything he flushes magically disappears, whether it’s a towel, votive candles, lingerie or travel-sized toiletries.
They really need to have a “do not try this at home” disclaimer at the bottom of that commercial. Even if the toilet has enough power to force towels and toys out of view, the pipes that lead from a residence to the sewer main, called “private laterals” are a different story. They’re just not designed to handle that sort of abuse.
A big chunk of sewage spills around San Diego can be traced to private lateral spills. Why are there are so many private lateral spills? These pipes are generally pretty small—I’m guessing that most people have no clue how small and vulnerable these pipes are. The one leading from my house to the main sewer line is only 4” in diameter. I learned this the hard way.
Late last week, I noticed some water pooling on the floor after I had done a load of laundry. The next day, our toilet started gurgling. The following morning, the water level in the toilet was really low. That evening, while I was finishing up at work, I received a frantic call that our toilet was overflowing and my boyfriend was stuck bailing the wastewater into the shower. Gross.
Our friendly Roto-Rooter team came to our rescue. Unable to clear the clog by snaking the toilet, they had to completely remove the toilet and use closed circuit TV to find the cause of the problem. Two hours and $400 later we found the answer. The culprit? It turns out that an out-of-town guest visiting the prior weekend flushed feminine products down our toilet. Coupled with a piece of wood that partially blocked the 4” pipe (the Roto Rooter guys think it got washed into the pipe at a cleanout during a rain storm), those seemingly innocent tampons caused a major headache for us.
So the next time you think about flushing something down the toilet—whether it be for convenience or to have an excuse to call the cute plumber—think about how small those pipes connecting your house to the main sewage lines really are. Trust me, the cost and the ick factor of having to clean up the aftermath of a plugged toilet is not worth it!
Is it safe to surf or swim in South San Diego? Attend our workshop to find out
Written by Jen Kovecses
That is why the annual South San Diego Water Quality Workshop: When is it safe to swim, surf? was developed. Tijuana River National Estuary Research Reserve, the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observatory System, WiLDCOAST, Surfrider San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper invite you to come out and hear some of the details about how our local agencies monitor water quality at our beaches, how decisions are made to close beaches or post advisories and ways you can help monitor in the watersheds in South San Diego.
The workshop is free but registration is encouraged. The workshop will be happening at the TRNERR Visitor Center on Wednesday October 12 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. And because we know you want more than just good information, we will also provide some snacks and raffles! Come out, meet some new people, learn a few things, and share some yummy food. For more information check out the event web page.
I would like to share what is going on with the Los Penasquitos sewage spill from September 8. Since the spill, Coastkeeper conducted additional monitoring in the creek as well as in the lagoon. The last sampling we did out there was on Tuesday, Sept. 20, so these results are almost a week old. Additional sampling will be performed this week, now that the city has stopped their pumping (as of Friday, 2 p.m.).
As you can see the E. coli levels in the creek have dropped dramatically since the city started pumping the creek out. As of Tuesday, E. coli concentrations were still elevated downstream in the lagoon, flowing slowly to the tidal area of the lagoon.
Dissolved oxygen levels remain low for all sites. The oxygen concentrations in the normal sampling location in the creek are steadily rising but the lagoon site shows a decrease over time. This could be indicating that the sewage effects are slowly making its way down the lagoon, past the pumping area of the city. The red line in the chart above is the state standard of 5 mg/L, so all areas of the lagoon and creek still have some room for improvement.
Ammonia concentrations show a similar patter to Dissolved Oxygen. This further indicates that the negative effects of the sewage are slowly making its way down the stretch of the lagoon.
These results are alarming, but not unexpected. The sewage will flow downstream. Despite the city’s attempts to pump it down, it will affect the land that the creek flows into. In this case, the Los Penasquitos lagoon is classified as a State Park Preserve. According to its website, “This label, which is pinned to only the rarest and most fragile of the state owned lands, reflects the increasing concern of ecologists and wildlife managers for the progressive destruction of coastal wetlands, a habitat vital for the preservation of migratory waterfowl and certain species of fish and shellfish.” This habitat is extremely delicate, and this sewage spill further harms this ecosystem, which is already fairly stressed.
Fortunately, Coastkeeper continues its vigilance in monitoring, tracking, and responding to the spill.
To highlight San Diego Coastkeeper’s efforts in this spill thus far:
- Our monitors were the ones that discovered the effects of the spill. Without the efforts of our volunteer monitors, the effects of this spill would have been noticed days later, if at all.
- Our monitoring data was used to establish the baseline conditions of the creek. The city pumped down the creek until their monitoring showed that the creek had returned to baseline conditions. Since our volunteer monitors study such an extensive portion of the county, our data was the best the city had to compare to. It was our data that established those baseline conditions.
- We were the first ones to monitor the effects of the spill on the downstream lagoon. When we saw where the spill was and noticed the extremely fragile ecosystem immediately downstream, we performed follow-up testing in the creek. Governmental agencies have since asked for our data, since we have the earliest available monitoring data in the lagoon.
I will leave you with this video of one of the park rangers in the lagoon discussing the effects he has personally seen.
I just got the results from yesterday's water quality samples taken at the location of the sewage spill in Los Penasquitos. And the results are in.
The good news is that the data show a slight improvement in bacteria concentrations, however, the bad news is that these concentrations are still well above healthy standards. Dissolved oxygen has risen only slightly and remains below 1 mg/L. This morning I took samples in the lagoon so we will be able to track the downstream effects of the sewage spill. We'll post those results on our blog on Monday.
Meanwhile, check out the data from yesterday's creek sample as compared to our initial samples from Saturday and our historical average.
San Diego Sewage Spill: What Happens to the Fish?
Written by Travis PritchardIn our on-going efforts to monitor the effects of the massive sewage spill into Los Penasquitos Lagoon, today I went out with a state park ranger (Scat), who works in the lagoon. We went sampling along the length of the affected area in the lagoon. He described how the dark grey water looked different than the normal brown, tea-colored water.
He told me an unforunate story about schools of mullet fish that he'd see in the lagoon, but he hasn't seen them sense the spill. Watch his video.
I also spoke with some folks from the city and the Regional Water Quality Control Board who said that they are pumping the water out until their tests come back clean. The Regional Board said they are using Coastkeeper's monitoring data for the past 3 years as the baseline data.
Thanks to all of our dedicated volunteers for the past three years who helped us gather that information. It's more important than ever!
Since Saturday, when Coastkeeper water monitoring volunteers discovered where all that sewage ended up, we have been working hard on follow-up. Our lab staff gave our data and other observations to our Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Department of Fish and Game and State Parks. Yesterday, Coastkeeper staff provided testimony at the Regional Board hearing to pressure our agencies to investigate the incident swiftly and thoroughly.
Our lab staff also continue to track the health of the creek - today, Travis Pritchard, our intrepid Lab Coordinator, went back to the creek to take additional samples. We will continue to monitor the water quality of the creek as clean-up proceeds and after to assess how well the creek is recovering. Tomorrow, we will be going into the lagoon, with our colleagues at State Parks and the Los Penasquitos Lagoon Foundation to follow the sewage plume downstream and measure where the spill potentially degraded the lagoon's water quality.
We don't have lab results yet from data's field samples, but Travis took several photos (see below). The creek still smells of sewage and dead fish still floated on the surface. The water remained opaque and dark grey, distinctly different from what the creek looked like upstream of the spill area. Travis also ran into the crew cleaning up the mess in the creek, and chatted with them. Since Monday evening, crews have been pumping sewage out of the creek and back into the sewer system. The crew on the scene seemed to think that it would be several more days before the clean up would be complete. Stay tuned to this blog to learn more as our lab results come out!
When the lights go down in the city and the sewage flows into the lagoon..
Written by Travis Pritchard
Did you see the tons of stories on the sewage spill that released 1.9 million gallons of sewage into the Los Penasquitos Lagoon? One thing all of these stores have in common is mentioning the beach closures that resulted. None of them mention the effects of the spill on the inland water systems.
Our volunteer water monitoring team went out on Saturday for our monthly routine water quality sampling. What they found at one of our sites is truly sickening. The samplers describe first being hit with the smell of sewage and then noticing the normally clear water was a strange shade of grey. Dead fish were floating on the surface and washed up on the bank.
Compare this with the results I got several months ago from the Tijuana River.
As far as I know, San Diego Coastkeeper’s volunteer water monitors were the first ones to notice the effects of the sewage spill. We collected evidence and made reports to the Water Quality Control Board and to the Department of Fish and Game.
Volunteers discovered the effects of the spill, volunteers collected samples and volunteers analyzed the samples in the laboratory. It is a community effort that found and documented the spill. This speaks to the strengths of our volunteer program and our role as the watchdog for the people of San Diego. In a time of shrinking government budgets and limited resources, we are the additional eyes and ears for the environment. Our mission is to “protect the region’s inland and coastal waters for the communities and wildlife that depend on them by blending education, community empowerment and advocacy.”
This is a perfect example empowering the community to protect our waterways.
In honor of world water day, I wanted to share what I learned in my recent week-long trip to Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a beautiful country, and everyone we met was friendly and helpful. My cousin and I stayed at a wonderful resort, Mango Rosa , located just outside of San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific coast approximately 2 hours from the Managua Airport.
On the drive from the airport to the resort, there was one thing I could not ignore: the miles and miles of trash lining the road . And while there were various types of trash along the road, it was clear that the vast majority of the trash was plastic—plastic bottles and Nicaragua’s ubiquitous pink plastic single-use bag.
The second thing I noticed after all the trash along the road was the countless number of people walking along the road and carrying a pink plastic single-use bag. Nearly everyone had one; no wonder they were scattered along the roadside.
Later in the week, I was fortunate enough to take a horseback riding trip to Playa Majagual and Playa Maderas, two of the local beaches. I was stunned by the number of plastic bottles along the dirt road leading from the beach, particularly since there were only a few houses dotted along route. In fact, in a 400-yard stretch, I counted 33 plastic bottles along the road.
As I glanced at these plastic bottles marring the otherwise-stunning landscape, they smiled back at me proudly with their American labels: Coca-Cola™, Powerade™, Sprite™…
When I tried to talk about the litter issue with some of the staff at the resort, they were quite defensive. They explained that most parts of Nicaragua do not have trash collection services and most people do not have cars. Mango Rosa was less than a mile from the local dump, where they collected and burned trash, but it was up to individuals to bring the trash to the dump. If people did not have a way to get the trash to the dump, it would often end up scattered along the side of a road, or across the countryside, or lining the beaches.
San Diego Coastkeeper has long-recognized the connection between inland trash and litter issues and marine debris issues. In fact, our last Signs of the Tide event, “The Great Trash Migration” explored this very issue while I was traveling in Nicaragua. If you missed the event, you can still see all the presentations here.
What I took away from my Nicaragua trip was that, whether we realize it or not, we as Americans set an example for the rest of the world. We’ve exported to Nicaragua our concept of a throw-away society, one where our lives are full of singl
e-use plastic bags and bottles. But in Nicaragua’s case, they do not yet have the infrastructure—the trash collection and recycling facilities—to handle the massive volumes of plastic such a lifestyle generates. The result? Our American throw-away habits are shamefully on display along the roadsides and hillsides and beaches in Nicaragua.
On World Water Day I challenge each of us to set a better example for our neighbors. Bring your own reusable bag to the grocery store and say “No!” to single-use plastic bags. Carry your own refillable water bottle. Support Coastkeeper’s work to clean-up trash along our coast and in our waterways and to convince the City Council to stop using City funds to buy bottled water, except in emergencies. By becoming a member of San Diego Coastkeeper, you can support our work and get a free “I bottle my own” reusable water bottle. Only once we set a better example for our neighbors, can we help our neighbors to take the first step to solving their trash and marine debris problems.
