Mitch Yost, a legendary Imperial Beach surfer is calling on surfers to ask their congressional representatives to clean up border beach pollution

Imperial Beach, CA. Mitch Yost, a legendary Imperial Beach surfer and shaper is the star of a new video at www.wildcoast.net calling on surfers to ask their congressional representatives to clean up border beach pollution

"As a surfer I come to the ocean for sanctuary. It's my church," says Yost in the video filmed in Imperial Beach and Tijuana. "You wouldn't want somebody dumping sewage in your church."

The video is part of a larger effort by WiLDCOAST to highlight the plight of border beaches that were closed 198 days in 2006 due to contaminated sewage flows from the Tijuana River and new sources of pollution from the Baja coast from Playas de Tijuana to Baja Malibu.

"WiLDCOAST is stoked that Mitch has joined our fight for clean water. IB surfers have a long and proud history of protecting our coast and ocean. Thanks to the efforts to surfers like Mitch, our elected officials are finally taking a stand for clean border beaches,” said Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WiLDCOAST.

Last week, WiLDCOAST scored a major victory against beach pollution when thanks to hundreds of letters, faxes, emails and phone calls sent by surfers from California and Mexico, Senator Diane Feinstein publicly supported providing federal funds to have an additional sewage treatment facility built along the United States side of the border.

On Wednesday July 18, sewage advisory signs were posted in Imperial Beach due to a release of sewage south of the border that also contaminated Playas de Tijuana. “Thanks to a great network of surfers and lifeguards in Northern Baja we are able to document and pinpoint the polluters who are illegally dumping human waste into the ocean,” according to Ben McCue of WiLDCOAST. Ben recently traveled to Washington to meet with federal officials to urge them to act quickly to clean up the border beach pollution crisis. .