$23 Million Box Culvert: San Diego County's Wasteful Pork Barrel Project That Permanently Entrenches Ecological Damage
Author: Citizens for Coastal Conservancy Published: March 6, 2026 Category: Policy Analysis | Investigative Reporting
The Real Cost of Doing Nothing: Why San Diego County's Box Culvert is a $19 Million Mistake
San Diego County is about to make a catastrophic decision that will cost taxpayers $23 million while permanently entrenching the ecological damage caused by Mexican sewage pollution. The proposed box culvert at Saturn Avenue represents not a solution to the Tijuana River sewage crisis, but rather a bureaucratic surrender that will lock our community into decades of environmental degradation, public health threats, and economic losses.
Citizens for Coastal Conservancy has analyzed this project in detail, and the findings are damning: San Diego County is pursuing an engineering solution that is $19 million over budget, will permanently establish the sewage problem as a fixture of our landscape, and will require polluting U.S. Navy property and forcing Border Patrol agents to work in the stench of ponded sewage—when a $3 million alternative exists that would solve the problem permanently.
The Box Culvert: Engineering Failure Disguised as Infrastructure
The proposed box culvert at Saturn Avenue is designed to contain and channel the Tijuana River's flow during high-water events. On the surface, this sounds reasonable. But when you examine the actual engineering and the actual costs, the project reveals itself as a classic example of government waste: expensive, ineffective, and designed to benefit contractors rather than communities.
The core problem: The box culvert does nothing to address the source of sewage pollution. It simply moves contaminated water from one location to another. The sewage that flows from Mexico will still flow. The bacteria, viruses, and chemical contaminants will still contaminate our beaches. The stench that plagues Imperial Beach, Coronado, and South Bay San Diego will persist.
The $3 Million Solution: Restoring the Historic River Channel
C4CC has proposed an alternative that is so simple, so cost-effective, and so obviously superior that the refusal to implement it borders on criminal negligence.
Move the Tijuana River south by one-half mile to its historic channel, which was established by the Army Corps of Engineers. Spend $3 million to restore this historic channel. This is it. This is the solution.
C4CC's Demand: Reject the Box Culvert, Implement the Real Solution
Citizens for Coastal Conservancy calls on San Diego County to reject the $23 million box culvert project and instead implement the $3 million solution: restore the Tijuana River to its historic channel.
The choice before San Diego County is clear: spend $23 million on a box culvert that will permanently entrench the sewage crisis, or spend $3 million to restore the historic river channel and solve the problem permanently.
The choice is obvious. The question is whether San Diego County has the political will to make it.