The first step is to figure out where, exactly, in Mexico it’s coming from.
At about seven square miles, Los Laureles is one of more than two dozen canyon systems in Tijuana that drain downhill into the United States. They have been urbanized in recent decades, often by factory workers building lean-tos from whatever they could find. There is weekly trash service, but it costs extra so canyon residents commonly recycle their garbage or burn it.
Each year, a large catch basin in the United States collects some 60,000 cubic yards of mud and junk from Los Laureles that costs roughly $1 million to remove. Leonard and others would rather see the money spent preventing garbage at the source than cleaning it up later.
A 2010 study for California’s garbage agency showed that building materials, tires, plastic bottles and Styrofoam were among the largest categories of trash in the U.S. section of the Tijuana River Valley. Those materials dot the landscape, particularly where shrubs have stopped their movement in floodwaters.
In recent months, [Oscar] Romo and [Jennifer] Leonard have documented more than 100 open trash dumps on the upper edge of Los Laureles Canyon and determined that the roughly 70,000 people who live in makeshift homes on the steep slopes aren’t the chief source of the garbage. Instead, it mainly comes from businesses, hospitals, manufacturing plants and other sources outside the canyon.
“The residents want the dumping ended,” Leonard said. “They are actually embarrassed to see their trash flowing across the border.”
Efforts to reach land use officials in Tijuana last week were not successful. Romo said they have not funded the research but have shown interest.
So has Carl Nettleton, a San Diego-based consultant and a leader of the Tijuana River Valley Recovery Team, made of about 30 agencies and groups on both sides of the border. The team is still in the planning stage, but garbage already is a leading concern.
“If we could stop trash and sediment from coming in, we could be successful in cleaning it up and … we could restore the valley,” Nettleton said. “Oscar is an innovative guy and I am intrigued to see what the results are.”
I wonder whether it will help to know which locations in Mexico drain into which locations in the U.S., if they can’t identify the actual dumping culprits on the other side of the border. But having a task force that includes people from both sides sounds like a good start.
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