A new report from researchers at San Diego State University, citing 'untreated sewage, industrial waste, and urban run-off due to inadequate infrastructure and urbanization,' calls the Tijuana River Valley 'a public health crisis' that imperils the health of a wide range of people who live, recreate and work near the polluted waterway and who find themselves especially vulnerable when wet weather causes floods to spread.
environmental health professor Paula Stigler Granados and others who spoke during a news conference on the report Tuesday morning said that calling the situation in and around the Tijuana River a public health crisis refers to the cumulative risk of health problems caused by the presence of pollutants rather than the observation of increases in observed illness. 'For this report, we did not look at the health data; that is not what we were asked to do,' Stigler Granados said.