Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Was Bilbray right?
Earthen berms pushed up against Tijuana River
It's not clear if the berm is in the U.S. or Mexico.
Following a model created more than 30 years ago by former Imperial Beach mayor Brian Bilbray on top of a bulldozer, crews from the International Boundary and Water Commission pushed up an earthen berm at the end of the concrete channel containing the Tijuana River.
The famous Bilbray bulldozer, in a June, 1980 Star News clipping.
Though the berm has been in place for a few days, the commission announced it Wednesday, April 4, saying "these berms will allow the temporary storage of any flows exceeding the capacity of [Mexican] Pump Stations."
Imperial Beach mayor Brian Bilbray radios police on 1980 to remove demonstrators (including present Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina) from blocking the bulldozer.
The pump station in Mexico has been the cause of some of the cross border flows — certainly the largest of them. Intended to divert water — usually storm water run-off — to the international commission's sewage plant, it can handle at best a modest flow. Mexican water authorities shut it down so it isn't destroyed when large amounts of flow come through.
Video:
Bilbray for Congress ad
The bulldozer shows up at beginning of ad
It was apparently shut down in February 2017 when a broken sewer main collapsed. For days workers in Tijuana tried to repair the broken main. Raw sewage estimated in the hundreds of millions of gallons rushed into the channel in the Tijuana River Valley before it reached the ocean. The sewage fouled beaches from the border to Coronado.
It's not clear that the three-foot- to four-foot-tall berm could contain that much sewage or stormwater — or what amount it could contain. "It's a start and it's about time," said David Gibson of the region's Water Quality Control Board. Frustration led one local environmental official to observe that maybe Bilbray had it right when he went out there with a bulldozer — an event that occurred in 1980 when he was the mayor of Imperial Beach. Ten years later when Bilbray headed into the river valley with a bulldozer again, he was blocked by a group of protestors that included the current mayor, Serge Dedina. A November 14, 1990 L.A.Times story shows two different takes on the same event — Serge Dedina recounting that Bilbray was out to flood the estuary and destroy it, while Bilbray's account is about keeping garbage out of Imperial Beach.
Is the berm is in the U.S. or Mexico? Seen down a steep concrete bank, it appears to be perhaps a tenth of a mile east of an area referred to as Whiskey 4, where a mob gathered in Tijuana and rushed across the painted yellow line that marks the border. Border patrol agents turned back the mob which was heaving rocks and bottles back south with pepperballs and other less lethal weapons. Gibson said he doesn't know if the water board will have jurisdiction over it, as they do over the commission's sewage treatment plant that will treat whatever liquid is captured. "We are assuming it is n Mexico or in the federal land area where they Department of Homeland Security obtained a waiver of environmental," Gibson said. "We are glad they are stopping the flow. We will work with them on the details if so asked." The berm is temporary, and the commission is planning for a more durable berm to be constructed, sources say.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Was Bilbray right?
Earthen berms pushed up against Tijuana River
Was Bilbray right?
Earthen berms pushed up against Tijuana River
It's not clear if the berm is in the U.S. or Mexico.
Following a model created more than 30 years ago by former Imperial Beach mayor Brian Bilbray on top of a bulldozer, crews from the International Boundary and Water Commission pushed up an earthen berm at the end of the concrete channel containing the Tijuana River.
The famous Bilbray bulldozer, in a June, 1980 Star News clipping.
Though the berm has been in place for a few days, the commission announced it Wednesday, April 4, saying "these berms will allow the temporary storage of any flows exceeding the capacity of [Mexican] Pump Stations."
Imperial Beach mayor Brian Bilbray radios police on 1980 to remove demonstrators (including present Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina) from blocking the bulldozer.
The pump station in Mexico has been the cause of some of the cross border flows — certainly the largest of them. Intended to divert water — usually storm water run-off — to the international commission's sewage plant, it can handle at best a modest flow. Mexican water authorities shut it down so it isn't destroyed when large amounts of flow come through.
Video:
Bilbray for Congress ad
The bulldozer shows up at beginning of ad
It was apparently shut down in February 2017 when a broken sewer main collapsed. For days workers in Tijuana tried to repair the broken main. Raw sewage estimated in the hundreds of millions of gallons rushed into the channel in the Tijuana River Valley before it reached the ocean. The sewage fouled beaches from the border to Coronado.
It's not clear that the three-foot- to four-foot-tall berm could contain that much sewage or stormwater — or what amount it could contain. "It's a start and it's about time," said David Gibson of the region's Water Quality Control Board. Frustration led one local environmental official to observe that maybe Bilbray had it right when he went out there with a bulldozer — an event that occurred in 1980 when he was the mayor of Imperial Beach. Ten years later when Bilbray headed into the river valley with a bulldozer again, he was blocked by a group of protestors that included the current mayor, Serge Dedina. A November 14, 1990 L.A.Times story shows two different takes on the same event — Serge Dedina recounting that Bilbray was out to flood the estuary and destroy it, while Bilbray's account is about keeping garbage out of Imperial Beach.
Is the berm is in the U.S. or Mexico? Seen down a steep concrete bank, it appears to be perhaps a tenth of a mile east of an area referred to as Whiskey 4, where a mob gathered in Tijuana and rushed across the painted yellow line that marks the border. Border patrol agents turned back the mob which was heaving rocks and bottles back south with pepperballs and other less lethal weapons. Gibson said he doesn't know if the water board will have jurisdiction over it, as they do over the commission's sewage treatment plant that will treat whatever liquid is captured. "We are assuming it is n Mexico or in the federal land area where they Department of Homeland Security obtained a waiver of environmental," Gibson said. "We are glad they are stopping the flow. We will work with them on the details if so asked." The berm is temporary, and the commission is planning for a more durable berm to be constructed, sources say.
Comments