Lawson-Remer skirts county on superfund site for Tijuana River Valley

SAN DIEGO (FOX/KUSI) — Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer renewed calls to designate the Tijuana River Valley as a federal superfund site on Thursday, two weeks after the Board of Supervisors opted to delay initiating the process to participate in the program.

Flanked by Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, the District 2 supervisor said her office submitted a request anyways to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate whether the Tijuana River Valley qualifies for its superfund program.

This program is used to clean up what the EPA describes as "the nation's most contaminated land" following environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters.

"We need the EPA to come in here, and tell us once and for all if there is toxic waste in the ground so we have it addressed or take it off the table as an issue for our communities," Lawson-Remer said.

The supervisor says she was able to sidestep the Board of Supervisors' decision earlier this month through a signature-gathering effort in concert with local organizers. Approximately 500 residents attached their name to the petition, which was mailed to the area's EPA administrator.

Among the signatories on the petition was Matt Henry, a father of six living in Imperial Beach.

"One of my daughters has gotten impetigo multiple times," he said. "Impetigo is like a skin rash that you get from breathing in staph germs."

Whether the county should move forward with a superfund site designation has become a point of contention between Imperial Beach leaders and the county, after the 3-2 vote by the Board of Supervisors to push discussion of it to a later time.

"Hopefully the board will come along with us and I think that they probably will," Lawson-Remer said. "I think they wanted to look at the issue a little bit more holistically, but my personal belief is that we couldn't wait. This is far too urgent."

Chair Nora Vargas, who made the motion to push back a final vote on the proposal, expressed concern the superfund site would not be the cure-all it has been billed to be.

"… the declaration of a Superfund site isn’t a 'silver bullet' that will solve all of our issues overnight, and in fact, can pose many problems of its own," Vargas said in a statement Thursday.

As she explained, some superfund sites have led to sharp declines in the values of nearby property and "long periods of uncertainty" for residents, including potential relocation.

"I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE," Vargas continued. "But I want community input on decisions that could change the fabric of our community forever."

Even so, Aguirre has emphasized the flow of sewage has reached a crisis point with the hazardous impacts on the Imperial Beach and neighboring communities.

"This isn't about bureaucratic paperwork, it's about survival," the Imperial Beach mayor said, adding the designation could unlock billions in federal dollars — something which has hampered previous efforts to address the crisis.

"At the end of the day, we are out of time," she continued. "All that range of excuses is over, we need interventions and we need them now."

FOX 5/KUSI's Juliette Vara contributed to this report.