Updated 12:48 a.m., March 20.
A sewage spill near Playas de Tijuana in Mexico is pouring more than 100,000 gallons of untreated sewage into the Pacific Ocean, the department of environmental health told NBC San Diego Tuesday.
Paloma Aguirre and other WiLDCOAST employees reported a noticeable stench and discoloration in local waters Tuesday.
Steve Smullen with the International Boundary and Water Commission told the environmental group it appears the flow of sewage to the Tijuana River started Monday afternoon.
A long-term ocean contamination alert around the U.S.-Mexico border was expanded Monday to include the Imperial Beach shoreline.
Northward sea currents are believed to have carried the sewage-fouled runoff from Mexico and the Tijuana River into the surf off the coast of IB in recent days, the county Department of Environmental Health said.
Signs warning of pollution hazards will remain in place until field measurements indicate that the ocean in the area is safe again for recreational use.
Contaminated flows out of Mexico have been entering the Tijuana Estuary for months due to this winter's rains, according to the DEH.
Latest observations by the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observatory System (SCCOOS) detect 36 million gallons of water a day leaving the river as of 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. To see how water from the Tijuana River is interacting with ocean currents visit the SCCOOS plume tracker.
City News Service contributed to this report.
"Mexico reported this morning two spills to the ocean at Playas de Tijuana in Mexico. One is located near the intersection of Calle Paris and Av. Farallon, the other near the intersection of Av. Ciclon and Av Farallon. Both are approximately 2 liters per second." This means that potentially up to 200,000 gallons of raw sewage floated though Imperial Beach through Sunday. This is actually a lot. Still waiting for official estimate of spill.
"It appears that there was a spill to the Tijuana River yesterday around 3 pm, according to the flow increase on the gage record at that time. Based upon visual quality of the flow checked in the past hour, it appears to be sewage, which is continuing but abating. We requested Mexico to resume operation of the CILA Pump Station, which has been off since Mar 8."
Great job Khari/Patch for covering local news as well as you do. You have rapidly become the place to go.
We should stop wasting our time and money on this problem and fix it. The only way to fix it is to force the poop to flow south. Build a breakwater from the north side of the Tijuana river out a few miles. Force the poop back from where it came. Maybe then our good southern neighbors will be interested in cleaning up their house. I doubt it.