This was the response of Imperial Beach mayor, Paloma Aguirre when asked for an estimate of the economic impact of beach closures. "Yes, because we are talking about people who stop traveling, national American tourism, international tourism, Mexican, from other countries. The impacts on our hotel industry, impacts on our restaurants and for me, the worst of all is the impact on the quality of life and public health."
"The beaches remain closed, and we are experiencing a record of beach closures as we have never seen before. All of this year and we do not believe, with the rainfall pattern that has occurred, that they will be opened in the summer," said Aguirre, who, along with her team, plans to demand a state of emergency due to the prevailing situation in the community of Imperial Beach.
"As a result, it comes at a huge economic cost for us, affecting our economy and our quality of life." she said, "right now, I don't know if you can smell the air, but it reaches us, and when there are south winds, it hits us not only from the Tijuana River, but also from the Punta Bandera plant."
From 30 to 40 million gallons of wastewater
Recognizing that this is a very serious public health issue, in addition to the economic impact, she indicated that "when the rains stop, the Tijuana River will stop flowing, but what the Punta Bandera plant is discharging never stops; it is discharging 30 to 40 million gallons of wastewater every day."
"And the only thing that makes a difference," said the former environmental activist and surfer who has suffered along with her community from the pollution of wastewater on the beach, "is whether the air currents are going from north to south or from south to north. Here, we feel the wind that comes from the south very strongly. That means that everything coming out of Punta Bandera is being pushed by the wind into the sea and hitting us."
A generation of children who have not known anything but dirty beaches
"My community is suffering a lot," emphasized Mayor Paloma Aguirre. "Last night, we discussed it as a topic at the City Council meeting, and we were reflecting that there is a whole generation of children who have not known anything but dirty beaches in Imperial Beach. From the time they were little until now that they are teenagers, they have not known what it is like to have a 100% clean beach."
She gave an example in the same vein, "in the summer, we have an annual youth training program for lifeguards called the Junior Lifeguard Program, where we teach young people how to swim, rescue others, and how to move in the water, and it was canceled due to beach closures."
Despite everything mentioned above, the interviewee was happy with the recent interview she had on Wednesday, May 3, with the governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda, and her team. "We had a meeting with the governor, the Secretary of the Environment, Mónica Vega, officials from her cabinet, directors of the CESPT, SEPROA, Hacienda, CONAGUA, and other relevant entities on the issue.
"I am super grateful to her for the openness and conversation we had, which was quite productive, it has been a priority for her to address this issue from the beginning, from her campaign days, and that is why she has not taken her foot off the gas with all the government entities involved in the labeling of funds that need to come not only for the repair of San Antonio de Los Buenos but for all infrastructure repairs, especially within the city of Tijuana that need to be done."
"She told us that what is still lacking is for the funds to come down to the state so that private and public investment collaboration can already be made and that the administration has already designated some funds called green funds that are exclusively to be used in water and environmental issues."
"These are the funds that are planned to be used for the upgrade of the plant, plus a 20 to 30% public investment to ensure that the funds are sufficient," concluded the first Latina mayor for the city of Imperial Beach.
