Forum from the Archives: Tijuana River Pollution Reaches Crisis Point in San Diego County, Scientists Warn

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Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The South Bay in San Diego County is the site of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons of untreated sewage and industrial chemicals flow daily into the Tijuana River and out of Imperial Beach. New research connects the waste to worsening air quality, which has been linked with headaches, skin infections and gastrointestinal problems in the local population. We’ll talk about why solutions could be years away. Guests: Soumya Karlamangla, national correspondent, based in the Bay Area, The New York Times Paula Stigler Granados, associate professor at the School of Public Health and head of the Environmental Health Division, San Diego State University Paloma Aguirre, mayor, Imperial Beach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, forum listeners. It's Alexis. Did you hear that forum is launching a video podcast? It is true.
0:07.0	Each week we'll drop a video recording of a recent forum episode on the KQED News YouTube channel.
0:14.0	We can't wait to bring you into the studio for our conversations on Bay Area Culture, California News, and beyond.
0:21.2	Our first few episodes are out now.
0:23.1	Just visit YouTube.com slash KQED News to see it all.
0:28.0	That's YouTube.com slash KQED News.
0:32.4	Hey, forum listeners, it's Mina.
0:34.3	I have exciting news.
0:35.9	We're taking forum beyond the airwaves, beyond podcasts,
0:39.0	to your screens. Now you can watch the forum conversations you love and be in the room with me,
0:44.4	Alexis, and our guests as we talk about the Bay Area, California, and beyond. Check it out at
0:49.8	YouTube.com slash KQED News. YouTube.com slash KQED News.
0:57.6	From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:19.3	50 million gallons of untreated sewage and industrial chemicals flow from Mexico to Imperial Beach in San Diego County every day.
1:26.7	It's been a long-time problem but reached new levels of concern recently
1:30.3	when researchers connected the water pollution to worsening air quality,
1:33.3	leading to headaches, skin infections, and gastrointestinal problems.
1:37.3	Coming up, an encore of our episode last month,
1:40.3	about why the sewage and trash have been so hard to address and why solutions
1:45.2	could be years away. Join us.
2:00.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. San Diego's Imperial Beach shoreline at the border with Mexico has drawn tourists and big wave surfers for decades. It's where visitors, as the Times Samir Carlamongla writes, built intricate sand castles and licked ice cream cones, and locals walk their dogs on the warm sand
2:19.2	and enjoyed the sea breeze and pites of beer on outdoor patios. But today, that shoreline is closed
	...

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