Isaac Santos, 22, remembers rising up with household barbecues at his aunt’s home in Imperial Seashore, south of San Diego, and swimming along with his cousins. Certain, the ocean was soiled typically, however the seashores have been open and accessible.
However since late 2021, swaths of the south San Diego coast have been closed daily — 1,345 days in a row and counting — due to sewage and industrial air pollution flowing in from the Tijuana River.
Santos is now an teacher with the nonprofit Out of doors Outreach, which connects youths to experiences in nature, and people air pollution closures make it more and more troublesome to get the children outdoor.
“They’re not able to enjoy our waters in Imperial Beach — the nearest beach that they have to go to to have clean water access is at least 35 minutes away,” he stated. Children right here don’t have their very own automobiles, he stated, and their dad and mom are too busy working to drive them to a cleaner seashore distant.
The entry he had as a child, he says, was essential for locating a objective, and confidence within the work he does now. For teenagers in South Bay communities similar to Imperial Seashore, San Ysidro and Nestor, worsening river situations the previous couple of years have stripped away not simply leisure alternatives however a key a part of neighborhood life.
“There are generations of kids that are growing up in the South Bay, San Diego without an experience of what a clean beach is — the ability to go in the water and feel better when you come out of it,” stated Ben McCue, govt director of Out of doors Outreach.
The Tijuana River is ranked the second-most endangered river in the US by American Rivers.
Knowledge from the San Diego County Division of Environmental Well being & High quality present the Imperial Seashore shoreline this yr has been closed daily aside from one.
The contamination of the Tijuana River and seashores isn’t the one impediment for out of doors teams attempting to teach the subsequent technology.
Folks stroll close to the Imperial Seashore Pier in July, disregarding the warning indicators about sewage contamination.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Instances)
For years, teams similar to Out of doors Outreach, Mar de Colores and Paddle for Peace have pushed youths to cleaner seashores miles away from their properties, offering surfboards, kayaks, swimming classes and security instruction — typically introducing children to the ocean for the primary time.
However they haven’t been allowed to go to the seashore on weekends, might go solely between Memorial and Labor days, solely to 3 seashores, and every group wanted a allow for every exercise, per the town of San Diego, which has jurisdiction over the closest secure seashores.
“It’s very restrictive,” McCue stated.
And there’s a big disparity. “If you’re a kid who has the resources to get to the beach, the parents who know where to go, who have the free time to take you, the equipment, all of our parks and beaches are open to you,” McCue stated.
In an effort to deal with such limitations, state lawmakers in 2024 handed AB 2939, to make sure nonprofit and tribal applications have equal entry to parks and seashores.
Advocates hoped it could deliver native guidelines in step with the California Coastal Act’s promise of entry for all. It went into impact in January 2025, and for seven months, McCue stated, teams like his had simpler entry, even to San Diego’s Mission Bay, which has a number of the closest and finest seashores for kids and households.
However the metropolis of San Diego has been combating again in opposition to the brand new legislation. In a heated Metropolis Council assembly on the finish of July, metropolis officers argued for the restrictions “because water-based instructional activities are inherently high-risk and drastically differ from activities on a beach or in a park. These requirements are designed to ensure that all operators, regardless of nonprofit status, meet the same rigorous standards necessary to protect participants, instructors, and the public.”
Town of San Diego didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Folks surf at Imperial Seashore, which has been suffering from sewage contamination.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Instances)
Dozens of residents and youth advocates testified. “They’re citing safety and liability, but it’s not based on data. It’s not based on anything that we’ve done or any experiences that they’ve had with us,” stated Ramon Chairez, director of training and environmental advocacy for Mar de Colores.
“If they knew who we were, they would know that we have incredible safety standards, we have one-to-one ratios with kids in terms of instructors and kids,” Chairez stated.
The decision failed after neighborhood pushback and a letter from the California Coastal Fee reminding the town of the state legislation. Metropolis officers at the moment are in talks with advocates to discover a compromise.
“We need to make sure this summer kids can get out and experience the joy of putting their feet in the sand, standing up on a surfboard for the first time, and not being afraid of coming out and getting sick,” McCue stated.
A Public Well being and Environmental Disaster
Tijuana River air pollution stems from many years of insufficient wastewater infrastructure on each side of the border, compounded by fast inhabitants development in Tijuana.
Officers from each international locations not too long ago introduced new commitments to speed up long-planned repairs. However even beneath essentially the most optimistic timeline, many South Bay seashores will stay unsafe for years, stated Phillip Musegaas, govt director of San Diego Coastkeeper.
Dr. Vi Nguyen, a pediatrician in San Diego County, has seen the physiological toll the closures tackle affected person bodily and psychological well being. “Kids [that] don’t have access to those areas is a very big concern for our pediatricians — kids need to be able, to be allowed to move their bodies, to play.” Nguyen concludes, “playing in more natural spaces is healthier for them, we know that nature is quite restorative for kids.” Physicians are anxious about charges of weight problems, prediabetes, fatty liver and different metabolic ailments, she stated.
For advocates like Risa Bell, founding father of Paddle for Peace, additionally it is about constructing environmental literacy, management and a way of belonging. “Access to the coast is not a luxury and it’s not a privilege. It’s a human right that’s tied to health, culture and community well-being,” Bell stated. “If you want the next generation to fight for the ocean, they have to be able to safely touch it. … That’s the only way that we’re gonna raise the future environmental leaders that are ready to protect it not just for their communities but for everyone.”
Shifting baselines
Advocates fear about “shifting baselines” — the concept that every technology’s understanding of what’s regular is formed by the degraded atmosphere they inherit.
“Kids growing up in San Ysidro and Imperial Beach today, their experience is that the ocean’s dirty and that you go in it and you get sick,” McCue stated. “We’re trying to shift that to show them, actually, it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“When you fall in love with the ocean, [you] grow up wanting to protect it,” Bell stated. “They’re gonna grow up and be a part of that fight one day, right, but they can’t protect a place that they’re not even allowed to go to.”
