SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The Environmental Protection Agency and state health officials are contesting a recent discovery of hydrogen cyanide in the Tijuana River Valley by local researchers that stoked panic among South Bay residents about the sewage crisis’ health impacts.
The federal and state officials, who were enlisted to investigate concerns about worsening air quality due to the sewage and a recent heat wave, echoed statements made by county leaders last week to ease fears that the conditions the pose an imminent danger to residents in the area.
In a statement on Friday, EPA press officer Julia Giarmoleo described the monitoring methods that caught the spike in toxic gases, like hydrogen cyanide, as “flawed” and added that their assessment indicated “no imminent danger or threat from hydrogen cyanide.”
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Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health, took this determination a step further calling the reports of hydrogen cyanide in the air “inaccurate.”