Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, Thursday joined Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, in announcing they had secured nearly $3.5 million to help address pollution and trash in the Tijuana River Valley. The money was secured through the Community Project Funding process and is intended for a project to dredge the Smuggler’s Gulch area and remove waste, debris and accumulated sediment. … The decades-long process to clean the area has been exacerbated in recent years due to multiple consecutive years of beach closures in the South Bay due to elevated bacteria levels as a result of sewage and wastewater runoff.

Other wastewater news:

• The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.): Opinion: What a sewage spill really does to a river town