Commissioner Giner’s mission: remove the obstacles keeping San Diego from resolving the border sewage crisis
Bureaucratic blunders, mismanagement, partisan politics, cross-border politics, understaffing, equipment failures. The list of reasons for the longstanding sewage crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is long. At the center is the International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational agency responsible for preventing water pollution in the Tijuana River and southern San Diego County shorelines. It has been severely handicapped in its task. The result: beach closures due to contaminated ocean water, economic losses and growing concerns about the long-term health impacts caused by breathing, smelling and touching sewage-tainted water. Each country is represented by a commissioner appointed by their respective presidents. Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, inherited the broken system. She’s been trying to steer the federal agency in the right direction ever since.