Southern California representatives call for federal state of emergency amid transboundary pollution crisis
U.S. House representatives from Southern California on Monday called for a federal state of emergency declaration, with hopes of bringing urgent relief to a region coping with toxic, transboundary air pollution. Democratic Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin and Scott Peters pressed for urgent action “in light of new findings that alarming levels of noxious gas are emanating from the Tijuana River” in a letter sent Monday to President Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). … The representatives were referring to an unrelenting crisis impacting the city of Imperial Beach and its neighbors, which have for years been the cross-border recipients of wastewater laced with chemicals and pathogens. This unfettered flow, which results from insufficient treatment in Mexico, ends up in California via ocean plumes and the Tijuana River Watershed.
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