South Bay residents have long been inconvenienced by Tijuana sewage that has regularly forced beach closures and created a literal stink in their communities.
But now, as our MacKenzie Elmer writes, they are grappling with what – and who – to believe on whether the sewage crisis is also an air pollution crisis threatening their health and safety.
The panic-inducing debate kicked up earlier this month when local university researchers declared at a press conference that toxic gasses were spreading from the Tijuana River to the South Bay. Some schools halted outdoor activities. It mobilized county public health officials into the river estuary to take their own measurements and verify researchers’ results. They couldn’t. So county officials declared that the gas levels weren’t high enough to constitute a public health threat.
Despite that county announcement, a UC San Diego researcher whose profile rose during the pandemic, is adamant that residents are taking in toxic gasses that equate to a “serious public health concern” though the data her research group collected were below key state and federal public safety standards for gas exposure. Yet federal occupational health and safety regulations also note that prolonged exposure to low levels of gas can cause symptoms such as nausea, headaches and sleep issues.
So what kind of gasses are we talking about here and what do we know about them?
Ex-San Diego Unified Supe Denies Allegations
Lamont Jackson, former superintendent of San Diego Unified School District, says he didn’t sexually harass former district administrators or have relationships with women promoted under his leadership.
Jackson denied these allegations against him during an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“I empathetically deny the narrative that’s being put forward,” he said.
A little background: The district’s school board unanimously voted to fire the district’s top leader after an investigation by an outside law firm confirmed he likely engaged in unwanted “sex-based behavior” with two former employees, Voice of San Diego reported. There reportedly wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate two other claims against him, according to that law firm.
The news led to other revelations among the district’s top brass, including allegations that the interim superintendent, Fabiola Bagula, helped Jackson maintain a culture of quid pro quo sexual harassment.
Mayor Gloria’s No. 2 to Lead Water Authority
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s deputy chief of staff, Nick Serrano takes over as leader of the governing board for the region’s major water wholesaler.
The board of the San Diego County Water Authority voted Thursday to elect Serrano as chair, installing Lakeside Water District representative Frank Hillaker as vice chair and San Dieguito Water District representative Joy Lyndes as Secretary. Serrano took over the top board spot after serving as vice chair under the former leader, Mel Katz, a Del Mar representative, as is general practice for power succession at the Water Authority.
Katz and Serrano led the Water Authority during a tough, multi-year drought and the dramatic departure of two of the Water Authority’s 24 customer water districts – Rainbow and Fallbrook.
Serrano, 34, is the youngest and first openly LGBTQ+ chair in the board’s 80-year history.
“As chair, my pledge is to continue my unwavering focus on ensuring safe, clean and affordable water for the ratepayers of San Diego,” Serrano said in a statement. “And to bring new, innovative solutions to the table in order to maintain affordability so that every San Diegan has a secure water future.”
In Other News
- Two massive UC San Diego residence hall towers opened Wednesday. (Union-Tribune)
- CBS 8 reported on what the city’s done to clear channels following devastating January floods.
- Mayor Todd Gloria and challenger Larry Turner, a San Diego police officer, tangled over everything from homelessness to street vendors in their first debate Wednesday night. The Union-Tribune has more details. 10 News hosted the debate, which you can watch here, and also teamed with the Union-Tribune on a poll released earlier this week showing a relatively tight race. Gloria’s campaign manager pushed back on the results in an interview with The Union-Tribune.
- More than a year after suing SeaWorld for unpaid rent during the pandemic, the city’s still fighting to get paid. (Union-Tribune)
- In a rare move, the county Medical Examiner’s Office declared a man’s September 2023 jail death a homicide that resulted from neglect by the sheriff’s department. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Haverstadt and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.