… To the eye, Imperial Beach, Calif., is an idyllic beach town, a playground for tourists and Southern California residents alike at the southern border with Mexico. But lately, the view has been ruined by the sea breeze, which reeks of rotten eggs. The surfers who once prepared for big-wave competitions are gone. So are the tourists who built intricate sand castles and licked ice cream cones on the pier. Imperial Beach is now the center of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters: Every day, 50 million gallons of untreated sewage, industrial chemicals and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County. The cross-national problem traces back at least a century. But it has significantly worsened in recent years as the population of Tijuana has exploded and sewage treatment plants in both countries have fallen into disrepair.

Other Tijuana River news:

• NBC 7 (San Diego): Coronado shoreline closed again because of new sewage contamination
• KGTV (San Diego): Sewage contamination leaks into Coronado beaches on Memorial Day
• inewsource (San Diego): How toxic is the Tijuana River? San Diego high-school students are helping scientists find out.