In normal circumstances, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to visit the region to personally review one of its most pressing problems would be welcome. But when it comes to the Tijuana-South Bay sewage disaster, Newsom’s visit Monday instead was one more attempt to sell the narrative that the slow-motion federal and state response to years of massive toxic spills reaching our shores actually reflects good-faith governance.
That is just not true. The problem would have been solved years ago if the federal government had declared it to be a emergency, clearing the way for an expedited fix, as was done last year with a broken freeway in Philadelpha. Repairing broken sewage infrastructure is not a daunting engineering challenge. It requires only funding and resolve.
Instead, Newsom hides behind the Biden istration’s contention that a long-term sewage nightmare with a cumulative effect that dwarfs a freeway closure isn’t really an emergency.
Why? The White House says the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act ties its hands. It doesn’t. Here’s the key part of the 1988 law: a federal emergency can be declared on “any occasion or instance for which, in the determination of the president, federal assistance is needed to supplement state and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety.” How much more obvious could it be that “state and local efforts and capabilities” have failed to deal with years of beach closures, sickened SEALs and border agents, and noxious fumes threatening entire communities?
Wait, there’s more: The law that San Diegans are told denies them relief explicitly says a federal emergency is whatever destructive event the president concludes warrants federal resources “to alleviate damages or suffering.” This is why legal scholar William C. Banks mentions its “expansive language” in the first paragraph of his 2011 analysis of the law.
If only California were a swing state. Then the presidential campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would likely be offering competing promises on when repairs could be finished. If only Newsom had the guts of Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who is willing to speak truth to power even if angers powerful Democrats who could sabotage her political future. If only we weren’t living through an ordeal that has overtones of Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” “When I use a word,” said Humpty Dumpty, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Were Humpty on the job market, the White House would snap him up. An emergency is what the Biden istration chooses it to mean — neither more nor less.
