Mayor Serge Dedina, a leading voice for the South Bay, returns to his environmental activism
“The sewage is killing us.” Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina did not mince words in 2017 after yet another spill from Tijuana’s broken wastewater system contaminated local beaches. He also did not waste time. Dedina pushed for answers from U.S. and Mexico officials, and got none that were satisfying. So he sued the federal government in 2018 and was later joined in the lawsuit by Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego. … Imperial Beach has long been a beach town beset by water contamination due to sewage spilling from Mexico. The battle for clean water has sometimes turned neighbor against neighbor, such as when Imperial Beach officials criticized their more affluent neighbor Coronado for not joining the 2018 lawsuit.