Every year, billions of gallons of toxic pollution flow across the U.S./Mexico border down the Tijuana River, bringing untreated sewage, hazardous industrial chemicals and trash into the Tijuana Estuary and Pacific Ocean. This pollution has led to years of beach closures in Imperial Beach and Coronado, and growing threats to public health from waterborne and airborne pathogens, and severe impacts to valuable coastal and marine habitats and the local economy.

Imperial Beach’s public beach was closed for Over 1,000 consecutive days. 

The failure to treat the sewage is a complex cross-border problem, with years of neglect and lack of funding in both the U.S. and Mexico that has caused the crisis to worsen. It is now an environmental, social justice and public health catastrophe that continues to disproportionately impact communities in South County San Diego. San Diego Coastkeeper took up this issue in 2023, and we are committed to using every means at our disposal to address the Tijuana Sewage Crisis.  

Learn more by checking out our three-part blog series ‘Understanding the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis’:

• An Overview of Causes and Consequences, Published: May 2, 2024
• Government Inaction & Community Responses, Published: June 13, 2024
• Tijuana River Sewage Crisis Funding Update 2025, Published: April 10, 2025