February 21, 2023
Last month, the San Diego Congressional Delegation and U.S. Senator Padilla wrote a letter to Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget requesting that the EPA include $100 million for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) U.S.-Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Program (BWIP) in the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
EPA’s Border Water Infrastructure Program helps finance critical infrastructure projects focused on public health and the environment on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In California, cross-boundary water pollution has been plaguing border communities for decades.
Every year hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage—human and chemical waste from commercial and industrial facilities—flow down through the Tijuana River and the New River, across the U.S.-Mexico border, into California communities. The pollution endangers public health, hurts local economies, and poisons local ecosystems.