Lee Zeldin, the new of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, vowed Tuesday in San Diego to pressure Mexico to stop the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis.
“Mexico needs to fulfill its part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused,” he said during a news conference at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. “They cannot view this as a U.S. problem just because their contamination reached U.S. soil.”
The new , who has been touring multiple states and various disaster-stricken sites since starting his job in January, stressed the urgency of preventing further pollution from entering the U.S. by accelerating the completion of projects on both sides of the border.
“I can’t imagine living with it,” Zeldin told a crowd of reporters about smelling sewer gas odors during his firsthand look at the Tijuana River Valley on Tuesday morning. “I am not going to stand before you right now and sugarcoat that that smell … can be tolerated.”
His visit on Earth Day was welcomed by residents who were critical of the last istration for not declaring the issue an emergency and who lobbied for more federal officials to witness the crisis firsthand. But there was also a level of skepticism about how Zeldin and the Trump istration would hold Mexico able and whether funding cuts could be expected.
, Demonstrating just outside the gate of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in San Diego, CA, Anne Mudge (c) of Fallbrook was part of the group protesting during EPA Lee Zeldin’s press conference at the base. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)Zeldin said the EPA will hand Mexico a list of projects to end the sewage crisis.
Some possible efforts were shared following an earlier private roundtable with several local and federal elected officials who stood beside him during the news conference. Among them were Republicans Rep. Darrell Issa, county Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, Coronado Mayor John Duncan, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Councilmember Mitch McKay, and Democratic Reps. Mike Levin and Juan Vargas. Officials said it was time to see a return on the more than $600 million in federal funding that has been allocated since 2020 to fix the long-mismanaged infrastructure.
Zeldin acknowledged that Mexico is upgrading its wastewater system in Baja California, but said projects are taking too long. So, he said, the EPA will “stress test every single project and every timeline” to speed up completion.
“We did it yesterday,” he said of a meeting Monday with Mexican Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources Alicia Bárcena. After “just a few minutes of talking through creative solutions,” he said, they found a way to complete a project that will divert some wastewater from the Tijuana River at least a year sooner than the originally estimated time of 2027.
Bárcena said ending the sewage crisis is also top of mind for Mexico and that it has made a lot of progress, particularly with its overhaul of the San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater plant in Baja California, which is “days away” from going live. The plant, which Mexico broke ground on earlier last year, had long been defunct, leading to millions of gallons a day of untreated wastewater being dumped into the Pacific Ocean and polluting South County shorelines.
On Monday in Little Italy, Bárcena met with Zeldin and William McIntosh, the newly appointed commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission. The agency manages the South Bay plant in San Diego and oversees water treaties with Mexico. Bárcena said she sensed “a very good willingness” from the EPA to continue working together on the issue.
She added that Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is also committed to moving forward with agreements and working cooperatively with the U.S.
Zeldin suggested expanding an ocean outfall that carries wastewater from the South Bay plant further into the Pacific Ocean so that flows are disposed of farther away from local shorelines. He had also acknowledged a local push to designate the Tijuana River Valley a Superfund site, but said stopping flows should come before a cleanup.
The also suggested the EPA send some of its employees to the soon-to-open San Antonio de los Buenos plant to inspect its operations.
“This is not a new idea,” he said. “We have a history of working (a border) that includes measuring, complying, making sure that what is promised to be done is done, and that is what is going to be different on this new day.”
Officials did not specify what steps the federal government would take to hold Mexico able. But Imperial Beach city leaders have some ideas.
Last week, in a 4-1 vote, the City Council ed a resolution suggesting that Congress push Mexico to hasten solutions to end pollution or face consequences, such as limiting border crossings and potable water sales to Tijuana, among other measures. Mayor Paloma Aguirre voted against the resolution.
Aguirre, a Democrat who has emerged as a leading voice in the fight against the cross-border crisis, said she was encouraged by Zeldin’s visit. Aguirre said she was not invited to the roundtable, but met with the during a tour of the South Bay plant, where she shared with him her community’s concerns about health impacts.
She said she was also cautious about whether the federal istration would see pressuring Mexico “as the only strategy” to stop the cross-border issue.
Zeldin was scheduled to conclude his visit with a helicopter tour of the border region and a meeting with Navy SEALs, who have reported hundreds of cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses after training in polluted water.
Staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.
