Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday toured wastewater treatment facilities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, marking his first in-person visit to the sites undergoing critical upgrades to reduce rampant sewage polluting Tijuana and south San Diego County communities. The California leader started his tour at the San Ysidro-based South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which on Tuesday will begin a yearslong effort to repair and expand its capacity, which has long been insufficient for treating Mexico’s sewage. He then traveled to the San Antonio de los Buenos plant in Baja California, which also is being overhauled after at least a decade of dumping millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. Years of negligence and underinvestment in wastewater treatment plants in both countries have resulted in sewage and toxic chemicals pouring over the border, leaving people ill with headaches, nausea, respiratory issues and other symptoms.

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