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Stake holder’s solution is not compliant with the Clean Water Act
December 10, 2019
Proposed Smugglers Gulch Sediment Ponds in the Tijuana River Valley
April 22, 2021

Citizens for Coastal Conservancy

February 20, 2019

The recent heavy winter rains in San Diego are displaying the two contrasting systems/strategies of sand management in the Tijuana River Valley…if one chooses to look. The first system is the manmade concrete lined sand capture system built several years ago in Goat Canyon.  The other system is the natural sand transportation system in Smuggler’s Gulch. Only during rain events do you typically get to see these two systems working because during most of the year the TJ Valley water system is dry and most of the water is beneath the surface.  The advantages and disadvantages of each of these systems have been made quite obvious during the most recent heavy rains.

If you objectively observe and compare these systems it is clear that man-made Goat Canyon sand detention basins are extremely costly (in 2014 cost was $400K per year…In 2018, estimated at $1.8 million per year), scar the land, stop the flow of water and eliminate the natural process of sand transportation which historically has brought sand to the shores of Imperial Beach.

 

In the case of Smuggler’s Gulch, there is very little maintenance, while in comparison to the cost of Goat Canyon – are by far more cost effective.  The additional benefits shown by the Smuggler’s Gulch system is that these natural rivers of sand provide a natural sand/cobblestone stream bed which is excellent habitat for wildlife, they allow for the filtering of water into the aquifer, eliminates standing water, and brings the fast-moving water quickly to our beaches where the ocean through wave action removes the silt as has been the case for thousands of years.  One additional benefit is that the Smuggler’s Gulch basin shows that in its natural state that the Tijuana River, if also restored to its natural state, can supply Imperial Beach with over 650,000 cubic yards of beach sand each year and protect our homes in the valley as well as our coastal shoreline homes.

Standing in the way of these basic facts and public opinion are the high-powered, media-

savvy environmentalist Mayor of Imperial Beach, his non-profit organization Wild Coast, a few Imperial Beach City Council members and the influential Surfrider Foundation.  Instead of promoting the restoration of the Tijuana River to its natural condition this group is promoting a new larger and more expensive sand capture system like Goat Canyon.  This property is located on the east side of Dairy Mart Road directly in the Tijuana River channel.  Based on the amount of sand and cobbles, this new Silt Capture Basin will have an estimated annual operational cost of nearly $6.8 million a year not including the cost of construction or the yearly cost escalation for future operations. Like the Goat Canyon facility, the new facility will incorporate the same flaws of the old Silt Capture basins such as high operational cost, scaring of the land, stopping the flow of water and eliminating the natural process of sand transportation which historically has brought sand to the beachfront of Imperial Beach.

 

However, what these environmental groups are not telling the public is that there are additional facts that should be considered prior to spending these large amounts of taxpayer money.  

These additional facts are:

 

1) The natural river system, if restored, is far cheaper to operate than the silt capture basins.

2) The Silt Capture Basins will do nothing to stop the current flow of trans-boundary sewage.

3) The Cost of the Silt Capture Basin would do nothing to clean up the existing conditions in the Tijuana River Valley.

4) The cost to operate the Silt Capture Basins would escalate to more than $20 million dollars per year by 2030.

5) There is no consideration in this plan for the projected population growth of Tijuana which is set to double in the next 12 years. Along with this growth will be more sewage, trash and sediment flowing down the Tijuana River into the United States.

6) The yearly cost of operating these two sediment basins will quickly exceed $12 million per year and offer no permanent solution to the movement of trash across the border.

7) The $12-$20 million a year is a lost leader expense and does not do anything to resolve the problem but instead puts US Taxpayers on the hook- forever.  Spending the same $12 million a year for a period of 30 years would go a long way to pay for the complete replacement of the entire City of Tijuana Sewer/Storm Drain system, restoration of the Tijuana River on the US side of the border and the replacement of all the roads, bridges and storm infrastructure on the US side of the border in the Tijuana Valley.  The results of this kind of spending would be no future sewage in the Tijuana River Basin, no more beach closure days for the City of Imperial Beach or Coronado, better public health and the best long-term outcome for the public on both sides of the border.

Many local citizens including surfers, environmentalists, residents and ranchers of the Tijuana Valley are questioning why these sand capture basin strategies have been considered over the logical choice of cleaning up the river basin and restoring the Tijuana River to its natural cobble-stone/sand creek bed.  Many of these same citizens have grown up the Tijuana River Valley and can still remember when the river was clean, the river flowed to the ocean and the Imperial Beach Slough was full of bright clean sand, full of fish with kelp growing inside the mouth of the river as it entered the ocean.  In the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s Imperial Beach had sand shorelines which were very wide during the summer and grew narrow in the winter months.  Unfortunately, today after 50 years of latent management of the river system it has become choked full of non-native plant species which act like debris dams and sand capture systems.  This has caused river channel to become undefined and the estuary to become full of fine silt which cannot make it to the ocean because the velocity of the river system is blocked by debris.

It should be the goal of all government agencies to return the Tijuana River Valley and its surrounding areas to its most natural state. As it now stands, the Imperial Beach shoreline is threatened with annually being deprived of sand from the Tijuana River and nearly all South Bay citizens support the river valley to be restored to its natural state as a river of sand.

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April 22, 2021

Proposed Smugglers Gulch Sediment Ponds in the Tijuana River Valley


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