OCEAN REPORT/TRESTLES RALLY IN IB TONIGHT/CLEAN WATER UPDATE

WILDDCOAST OCEAN REPORT/MARCH 1ST, 2006

I. SAVE TRESTLES IN IB UPDATE

Join Wildcoast tonight March 1st-6:15-6:30PM for pizza SAVE TRESTLES MINI-RALLY at the Imperial Beach City Hall, 825 Imperial Beach Blvd.
Imperial Beach TO voice support for a resolution by the IB Council against the Trestles Toll Road. Bring your boards.

AND HELP SAVE TRESTLES

Or email your respectful and positive email in support for the resolution and Saving Trestles today at:
Mayor Diane Rose
ibmayor@aol.com

City Manager Gary Brown
gbrown@cityofib.org

II. WATER QUALITY IN IMPERIAL BEACH AND CORONADO AS OF MARCH 1ST
Brown, smelly, closed and polluted.

VOICE OF SAN DIEGO

Headed North, Again
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006 -- 1:36 p.m.

Beach closures went into effect today at Imperial Beach, Silver Strand
State Beach and Coronado, as sewage-contaminated runoff from the
Tijuana River began moving north.

Currently, about 146 million gallons of sewage runoff per day are
entering the Pacific, according to a Tijuana River gauge. Currents are
pushing it north.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health closed the
shoreline at the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge a week ago,
after a quarter-inch rainfall drove sewage into the water.

Signs have been posted and will remain in place until tests show the
water is safe, the Environmental Health Department said in a release.

The county also issued a general advisory today, warning against coming
in contact with the water for 72 hours following the rainfall. Feces,
soil and vegetation can drive up the water's bacteria levels.

-- ROB DAVIS

III. WILDCOAST CLEAN WATER CAMPAIGN UPDATE:
We have asked U.S. Attorney Carol Lam (the person who convicted Duke Cunningham) to investigate the Bajagua project for the following reasons:

--Participation of Duke Cunningham as chief project proponent—were there cash payments made to him? We have a right to know.

--Payment to Brian Bilbray of $35,000 to lobby congress less than one year after leaving office and not disclosing to congress he was paid by Bajagua to do so.

--Refusal of Bajagua to disclose names of investors in a publicly funded project. Who are they protecting?

Big Picture: This project will be paid for by our tax dollars. As citizens of the United States we have a constitutional right to be provided information on projects that we pay for with our hard-earned tax dollars (unless of course they pertain to national security—but as you know sewage treatment on the border is very different than the secrecy of military operations in Iraq). Our analysis indicates that this project will not solves any of our beach closure problems.

We believe that because we (and I mean our community) are the ones who use this coast and live here, that we should have a right to participate in a process that ultimately will impact us. We have been completely excluded from all matters relating to deciding how to solve our water quality woes. Our position is clear: it is our country, our government, and our coast: we will inform the people we elect to office how to solve our problems—this problem should not taken hostage by a a private company run by people who use our money to make a profit at our children’s expense and who do not answer to us and who publicly admitted to spending $20 million dollars to advance their project. This is big and bad government at its worst.

Photo by Julie Walke

VOICE OF SAN DIEGO
Follow the Smell
Monday, Feb. 27, 2006 -- 5:26 p.m.

Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña and Imperial Beach environmentalist Serge Dedina are calling for a federal probe into the exclusive contract recently awarded to Bajagua LLC to clean up Tijuana's festering sewage problems.

Saldaña, D-San Diego, called for a probe to examine how a sole-source contract was issued to Bajagua, which proposes to build a sewage treatment plant in Mexico that would double the capacity of Tijuana's existing infrastructure.

Dedina, the executive director of Wildcoast, a local conservation group, called for the Department of Justice to lead the examination.

"It needs to be investigated at the federal level," said Joe Kocurek, Saldaña's spokesman. "It just seems to be to the point where there is some really unsavory influence."

Bajagua's proposed treatment plant would be built in Mexico and boost daily wastewater collection capacity by 34 million gallons, while improving the quality of 25 million gallons already collected, treated and discharged in the ocean.

Although a majority of government contracts are awarded though a competitive bidding process, Bajagua exclusively negotiated the terms of its deal with the International Boundary and Water Commission, a small federal office that falls under the State Department's purview.

-- ROB DAVIS