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Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina speaks out after latest Tijuana sewage spill

Posted at 6:38 AM, Feb 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-12 09:39:18-05

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Imperial Beach's mayor spoke out on Twitter Monday after another sewage spill in Tijuana prompted a beach closure over the weekend.

On Saturday night, a pump station in Tijuana shut down, forcing the San Diego County health officials to close the beach as a precaution.

The beach was closed from South Seacoast Drive to the Tijuana River, and with rain to douse the San Diego region throughout the day on Monday, it remains unclear when the beach will reopen.

With this latest beach closure, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina took to Twitter to offer his thoughts on the ongoing issue.

RELATED: South Bay mayor says raw sewage from Mexico has only gotten worse

His tweet thread, in which he cited Tijuana's State Commission of Public Services and Baja California Gov. Francisco "Kiko" de Lamadrid stated:

A year after mega-spill in TJ River and not a cent has been spent to improve TJ wastewater infrastrucure or wastewater capture systems in the U.S. There are more deliberate dumps of toxic waste and sewage than ever and more raw sewage dumped on beaches from Playas to Rosarito.

The failure of the US and Mx govts to do anything at all to prevent the violation of federal law and int. treaties with regards to the pollution of the TJ River and border beaches is an epic failure of leadership and commitment to protecting public health.

Apparently binational cooperation in TJ-San Diego only applies to promoting/protecting private interests rather than our right to a high quality of life for all. Somehow the right to clean water and air on the border has been forgotten and is no longer considered to be important.

When is the last time any interest groups supporting NAFTA mentioned the need to protect the environment. In the early 90s-there was a robust call for env protection on the border- now its just a call to protect corporate greed and private benefit.

With latest deliberate dump of sewage in TJ River by @cespt - it continues consistent pattern of pre-storm infrastructure "breakdowns" -this happens just before it rains and @cespt saves money on energy bill by not operating pump stations.

The logic of sewage system "failure" in TJ by @cespt and @KIKOVEGA_ -is that the @CityofIB @CAStateParks @CityofSanDiego @SDBeachH2O pays cost of spill and Baja govt saves huge amount on its energy bill. Of course US fed agencies spend $0 on cleanup-all costs are local.

Numerous spills have plagued the Imperial Beach area since February 2017.