SURFLINE/WILDCOAST DECLARES WAR ON BORDER POLLUTION

SURFLINE

May 20, 2006

WiLDCOAST DECLARES WAR ON BORDER POLLUTION

http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/surfwire.cfm?id=2755

IMPERIAL BEACH, May 19. Faced with record beach closures in Imperial Beach and Coronado from Tijuana sewage, WiLDCOAST, an Imperial Beach-based coastal conservation organization, today declared war on border pollution. WiLDCOAST directly tied increasing levels of toxic ocean pollution along the border directly to the Bajagua project, an American taxpayer funded planned Tijuana sewage treatment plant. WiLDCOAST placed the billboard on Palm Avenue in Imperial Beach. It features a surfer spray-painting “Clean Water Now!!! Bajagua=Scam” against a backdrop of beach closure signs.

“The main reason that Imperial Beach and Coronado continue to experience record beach closures is that corrupt Tijuana developer Enrique Landa and his Bajagua project have hijacked the American political process and blocked every effort by American citizens to stop toxic sewage flows on the border. Landa and Bajagua have paid elected officials in San Diego more than $650,000 to receive a sole source no-bid contract worth $600 million dollars to build a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana that won’t reduce beach closures at all,” said Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WiLDCOAST and an Imperial Beach surfer. “It is outrageous that our political system has been hijacked by a foreign contractor with the participation of American elected officials. As a result our children and local surfers are getting sick from toxic sewage.”

On May 10th, WiLDCOAST filed a complaint with the U.S. State Department about the pending United States government contract with Bajagua, stating that the project would have no impact on reducing beach closures at all and was a waste of taxpayer funds. WiLDCOAST recently learned that the sole reason that Landa is promoting the Bajagua project is so that he will have an American taxpayer funded sewage treatment plant next to his planned industrial park in Eastern Tijuana. Bajagua has threatened to sue WiLDCOAST for filing a complaint with the U.S. State Department.

The dumping of more than 500 million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River since January 1st has also caused the recent epidemic of beach closures. On Monday, May 15th, sewage polluted water extended from the U.S. Mexico border north to Coronado after a massive sewage spill in Playas de Tijuana. Last year Imperial Beach was named one of California’s most polluted beaches by Heal the Bay.

As part of its effort to obtain federal support for a Comprehensive Clean Water Action Plan to clean up border beaches in a way that is free from the taint of the Bajagua scandal, on Wednesday WiLDCOAST’s Clean Water Campaign Director, Ben McCue met with Senator Diane Feinstein in Washington D.C. This morning he also met with Senator Barbara Boxer to request obtaining relief from border pollution.

“Senator Feinstein was very concerned about the plight of border beaches,” said McCue. “She personally told me she would be looking into our sewage crisis. We need all the help we can get to make sure that Tijuana developers don’t continue to corrupt our political system, pollute our beaches and make our children sick from toxic sewage.”

WiLDCOAST protects and preserves coastal ecosystems and wildlife through grassroots support, media campaigns and protected areas.