He says Mexico’s new president is open to stronger environmental cooperation.
SAN DIEGO – Lieseldin, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, visited San Diego on April 22 to seek joint solutions and action to end the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis.
“The visit is “very important to ensure that you don’t just see and hear the eyes directly on the ground in Southern California,” Zelding said at a press conference.
Zeldin said on the evening of April 21st, the counterpart of Mexican Environment Secretary Alicia Barcena, he told Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that he had a “strong joint relationship” to “finally solve the problem in the end.”
Authorities said over 100 billion gallons of sewage have been discharged into the Tijuana River over the past five years, flowing into the US side, entering the Pacific Ocean, causing good health concerns and beach closures.
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Zeldin’s visit also included a meeting with the Navy Seal. His press conference was held at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
A bipartisan effort
Before the press conference, Zeldin said the aim was to resolve the crisis, to resolve the crisis.
He told the media.
Zeldin said it was a bipartisan effort from the US side.
The press conference was joined by local, state and federal election officials, including representatives from the San Diego Congressional delegation, Darrell Issa, Mike Levin and Juan Vargas.
Democrats Levin and Vargas said they have a record of Zeldin working across the aisles and getting things done when Zeldin was representative of New York’s Republicans in Congress from 2015 to 2023.
“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s an American issue,” Vargas said.
“This is a bipartisan issue and it’s still necessary if you’re trying to solve it,” Levin told the Epoch Times.
Levin said Congress has allocated a total of $653 million since 2020 to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant at the San Diego border to expand its infrastructure, but construction has been too slow in the past few years and he now hopes to speed up under new leadership.
Leaders look for permanent solutions
“I don’t want a 70% solution or a 90% solution, but I need to be on the same page with 100% solutions from the US side,” Zeldin said, adding that if everything on his list is complete, “this crisis is over.”
This includes the operation and maintenance commitment of the Mexican side water treatment facility. Zeldin said the infrastructure aspects of Mexico are getting worse.
“Mexico accepts whether it’s on our list and documents everything we follow,” he said.
Opportunities for collaboration with Mexico
In response to questions from the Epoch era, Zeldin emphasized the urgency and opportunity for cooperation in solving the crisis.
“The Americans on our side of the border that have been dealing with this for decades are out of patience,” Zeldin said. “There are very limited opportunities,” he said. “What is being conveyed by the New Mexico president is a strong desire to completely resolve this situation.”
Vargas, a district that includes the border area, has expressed hopes for cooperation between the New Mexico administration and its president, Sinbaum.
He said in the past that Mexico hadn’t been too concerned about sewage flowing into the US. But now, “we have a new president who is an environmental scientist and she is committed to doing this.
Issa told the Epoch Times that she saw a high opportunity for cooperation between the two countries.
He said President Donald Trump was very keen to resolve the sewage crisis for the first time in the White House, and that he is back now and that Mexico has a new president too.
“On this issue, when you see that the president (the one) is the environment for his entire career, the president on this side, and the entire career is under construction, you realize that it’s a perfect marriage to bother you about this issue,” he said.
If the current Mexican president “is as much a concern as it appears, this is an opportunity,” he said.
The crew works on September 19, 2024 on the Tijuana River outside San Diego, California. John Fredrix/Epoch Times
Mexico needs to clean the pollution
Zeldin is struggling to hold Mexico accountable for pollution in the Tijuana River.
In a March 8th post on X, he wrote that pollution on the Tijuana River was “unacceptable” and that “Mexico must respect this pollution and its commitment to controlling sewage.”
Zeldin said at a press conference on April 22 that collaboration is needed to stop the flow of sewage to the US, but Mexico needs to “play its role in purifying the contamination they have caused.”
“They can’t consider this a US problem just because their contamination reaches the US soil,” he said.
“We need Mexico, which we need to commit to all the projects that stop the flow, and to actually finish this project, we need to commit to its final cleanup.”
On September 19, 2024, garbage will be built along the Tijuana River outside San Diego, California. John Fredrix/Epoch Times
Super fund designation petition
San Diego leaders, including county supervisor Terra Lawson Roemer and Mayor Imperial Beach, the border city most affected by sewage pollution, have petitioned multiple times with the EPA to fund, provide resources and bring resources to the region to designate the valley of the Lower Tijuana River as a super fund site.
The EPA had rejected the petition.
He did not mention the petition for the super fund site, but said at a press conference:
