San Diego, California – A 1,000-foot-long floating trash boom, quietly installed just north of the U.S.-Mexico border last November, has intercepted over 500 tons of waste before it could reach California’s coast. For decades, the Tijuana River has carried trash and debris across the border during storms and flood events, fouling the Pacific Ocean and wetlands in San Diego County. But this new binational project may signal a shift in both approach and outcome.
Led by the nonprofit Alter Terra in collaboration with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), and supported by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, the boom was designed to respond to the river’s volatile flows. In March, when a storm pushed water levels to nearly 13,000 cubic feet per second, the 1,200-foot structure — anchored by 360 feet of reinforced rigging — held firm.
“We controlled 100 percent of the trash that flowed across the border,” said Oscar Romo, executive director of Alter Terra. Romo, a longtime advocate for watershed resilience, credits the boom’s adaptive engineering and strategic placement. Suspended just above the riverbed, the structure rises and falls with the waterline, intercepting floating debris while letting sediment-laden water pass beneath…