IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) – If you live in the South Bay and hear a knock on your door, it could be local and federal employees asking you how the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis is impacting your way of life.
San Diego County and CDC officials are going door to door in the area doing another health survey to understand just how bad the sewage crisis is hitting the area.
“It will tell us how much worse it's getting or if it's improving. That's what the survey will do,” Supervisor Paloma Aguirre of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors said.
This is the second health survey related to the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis.
It's known as a CASPER survey, and the first one was done in 2024.
“We want to continue to make sure that we are in touch and in tune with the community and what they are experiencing,” Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, the San Diego County Public Health Officer, said.
“It builds on the first study. Now we will be able to see if the exposure of people continues, if the impacts to their mental health and well-being continue to be severe, if people are continuing to be sick,” Aguirre said.
Who gets a knock on their door will be random. Crews will be in the South Bay Thursday through Saturday.
“We know that some things have changed. We know that air purifiers have been distributed; you know, there's other things, so we have added some additional questions,” Thihalolipavan said.
But will anything actually change? Some people ABC 10News spoke with who live and work in Imperial Beach feel this is just another study.
“Nothing's happened since, right? So, you still can't go on the beach here. The smell is still pretty prevalent here in Imperial Beach,” Denim Kurtis, an Imperial Beach Resident, said. “So, I think that just putting another band-aid on and giving people some sort of hope with an update as to another health scan or screening or whatever they may be doing isn't doing anything for the residents here of Imperial Beach.”
Supervisor Aguirre said another one of these studies can show why the need for help is so great here.
“It makes our case stronger for what we're pushing for, which is not having to wait for an entirely different country to come and save us,” Aguirre said.
“We want to have the most current information as we continue to talk to our state and federal partners and advocate for more resources and attention on this emergency,” Thihalolipavan said.
