No one denies the sewage and toxic chemicals polluting the Tijuana River watershed is a crisis. But does the situation warrant an emergency declaration? Imperial Beach and San Diego have adopted such proclamations. So has the county. The state, however, continues to resist calls for a formal declaration. The debate seems far from over, however, based on recent letters from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration making a case against it and San Diego leaders rejecting no for an answer. Points argued in their letters put into question whether their differing interpretations of the law are delaying what could be a stronger concerted effort to stop the pollution and assess public health impacts. In an early June letter to Newsom, all mayors in San Diego County made the point that the “reprehensible conditions in the Tijuana River Valley” fall within the Emergency Services Act’s definition of a “state of emergency.” The law states that conditions must be “beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat.” “A declaration would provide the Governor with additional, critical tools that could provide a significant measure of relief to the residents of San Diego County and the State’s property and resources,” read the letter. The Newsom administration’s case for why the crisis remains ineligible for a gubernatorial proclamation boils down to two major points: the problem is not California’s responsibility to resolve and suspending state laws under a gubernatorial emergency proclamation would not improve conditions. Simply put, the failing and outdated South Bay International Treatment Plant that has allowed Tijuana sewage to foul South County shorelines is a federal facility in a federally controlled area. “(A)nd thus a federal response,” Nancy Ward, director of the state Office of Emergency Services, responded to the mayors in a June 14 letter. Newsom’s efforts have focused on insisting federal authorities take responsibility and release funding for deteriorating wastewater facilities, a position the administration has been making for months. Local leaders argued that a true solution to ending the problem will require more than just improving the treatment plant. They said the state must help accelerate major infrastructure solutions along the U.S.-Mexico border under the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed comprehensive plan, not just advocate for federal funding to fix and expand the South Bay plant, a long-delayed and expensive undertaking that suffered a $150 million setback. The EPA’s initiative proposes that it will take several other projects to plug the problem significantly, projects that have yet to be considered for funding. It includes building a river diversion system on the U.S. side to catch and treat polluted dry weather flows, installing trash control and water recycling measures and managing sediment for flood control. Officials underscored a new law that now allows the International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages the South Bay plant, to receive funding from non-federal entities, such as state and local governments and nonprofit organizations. In a letter Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre prepared Thursday in response to Ward, she said the state must be “the strongest advocate” for the EPA’s comprehensive plan. “The unfortunate reality is that federal agencies are currently only considering a partial fix to control wastewater and trash in the Tijuana River, which falls far short of our community’s expectations for a comprehensive infrastructure solution,” she said. Ward had also argued that the sewage crisis didn’t even qualify for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration under the federal Stafford Act, which is declared for any natural event, like a hurricane or earthquake. But research from the Brookings and the Environmental Defense Fund found last year that federal declarations are inconsistent, opaque, and difficult to navigate for survivors.” Additionally, Ward said “no one has identified” any state law that would be helpful to suspend under a state of emergency to prevent or mitigate the impacts of the sewage crisis. The mayors did not cite a specific law that hindered efforts but did identify a state government code listing several ways the governor could intervene with an emergency plan. They said the state could deploy medical staff, clean up state property in the Tijuana River Valley and Border Fields State Park, or determine the needs of impacted communities who have reported getting sick from pollution exposure. The OES director also said that an emergency proclamation was unnecessary for deploying state resources. She said that recently happened when the state Dept. of Public Health “engaged” with the county to review whether there had been a spike in South County patients with gastrointestinal symptoms earlier this year. The state concurred with the county’s conclusion that there was no evidence of increased diseases. Aguirre said the state’s determination “does not fully address the broader spectrum of public health concerns, including long-term exposure to pollutants and the cumulative effects on community health. … The residents of south San Diego are reporting illnesses and rashes that need to be investigated, not ignored.” State public health officials are currently working with the county to request epidemiological assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.