San Diego, California – With Southern California communities suffering from years of toxic sewage flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border, a new federal bill aims to do what decades of fragmented efforts have failed to accomplish: establish a unified, comprehensive, and federally led response to the Tijuana River pollution crisis.
The Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act of 2025, introduced Thursday by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, would designate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the lead agency in tackling the long-standing environmental and public health emergency that has battered the Tijuana River and New River watersheds for decades.
Since 2018, more than 200 billion gallons of raw sewage, industrial waste, and stormwater have flowed from Mexico into Southern California, contaminating water, polluting air, and forcing near-continuous beach closures. In 2023 alone, more than 44 billion gallons crossed the border — the highest volume in 25 years…