IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) - Signs remain in place just north of the U.S.-Mexico border in Imperial Beach warning people not to go in the ocean due to sewage contamination.
The warnings are from a massive spill earlier this month, and on Tuesday, local leaders, including Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, pleaded with the Trump administration to help in solving the decades-long environmental crisis in the South Bay.
"We're here to ask President Trump to help us fix this problem," Dedina said at a Tuesday news conference that also featured representatives from the Port of San Diego, the Surfrider foundation and the Imperial Beach City Council.
"II's horrible for our Border Patrol agents and our Navy SEALs who are training and working in this stuff," said Dedina, appealing to Trump's policy linchpin of border security.
Dedina hopes money pledged to fix Mexico's failing sewer infrastructure, perhaps as part of the USMCA trade deal, would be matched by the new Mexican administration.
Dedina declined to put a number on the amount he would ask the president for, but he may have the president's ear when he and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer visit the White House next week.
