City Crews Complete Work on Smuggler’s Gulch Berm, Months After Storm Damage

As state and federal eyes turn toward the Tijuana River Valley, the city of San Diego Thursday completed work repairing a portion of water infrastructure at the border damaged by storms.

The city’s stormwater department on Thursday finished reconstructing a berm destroyed by last January’s storms, restoring a storm channel in the river valley’s Smuggler’s Gulch.

“We are dedicated to restoring the integrity of our stormwater infrastructure in San Diego to help protect against flooding and potential storm damage,” said Todd Snyder, stormwater department director. “This project addresses critical damage caused by the January storms and is a continuation of our work completed under an emergency declaration.”

Smuggler’s Gulch is part of a steep-walled canyon feeding into the Tijuana River around two miles inland of the ocean and three miles west of the San Ysidro Point of Entry.

The work on the berm took three weeks and involved placing fill soil and filter fabric to prevent further deterioration and washouts.

Following the destructive winter storms which caused catastrophic flooding throughout Southeastern San Diego, the border and other regions of the county, San Diego crews have completed emergency work on 18 miles of channels throughout the city.

Despite emergency funding secured by Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council after the storms, the department would need an estimated $1.6 billion to fully upgrade and modernize the many miles of stormwater infrastructure in the city.