Mexican and American mayors meet to discuss Tijuana sewage crisis

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Mayors from cities in Mexico in the U.S. met Tuesday in Imperial Beach to discuss ways to help solve the ongoing Tijuana River sewage crisis.

The meeting included the mayor of Imperial Beach and the mayor of Cabo, who is dealing with similar pollution problems.

“We have our own foreign policy here in Imperial Beach. We’ve been reaching across the border to keep the coastline clean,” said Mayor Serge Dedina of Imperial Beach.

Dedina, along with the mayor of Los Cabos, have a major pollution issue on their hands. And though relatively new for Cabo, the coastlines and estuaries of Imperial Beach have been poisoned and dumped on for more than 40 years.

“We can’t clean this up without the help of Mexico,” Dedina said.

Now, after decades, it seems Mexico is starting to take the situation seriously.

“The significance of this is that we have new political leaders from the local level, all the way up to the President’s office in Mexico. They have a different attitude toward all of this and realize that it’s critical for us to build these relationsips,” said City Concil Woman Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach.