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Guest Editorial
By Ignacio Martinez

As a South Bay resident, I know firsthand what many residents, lawmakers, and experts have experienced: that our communities too often have been overlooked and taken advantage of. The Tijuana sewage crisis is the most glaring and painful example of our generation.

For decades, we have lived with closed beaches, toxic air, polluted water, and the constant fear of what long-term exposure could mean for our families' health. While government agencies endlessly debated, our communities lived with the consequences.

So, after seeing a recent story on CBS, I felt that I had to finally speak up! Because now, after years of frustration and delay, something different is finally happening — real progress toward solving the sewage crisis.

That is exactly why a recent lawsuit targeting the operator of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant is so infuriating. This lawsuit, and others like it, aren't about facts and aren't about solving the problem. They're just another attempt by outsiders to profit off the suffering of vulnerable South Bay communities.

And in the process, they risk halting the very progress that could finally bring relief to our neighborhoods.

The U.S. and Mexico recently signed a major agreement known as Minute 333, which outlines a series of projects on both sides of the border that would drastically improve the flow of untreated sewage from Tijuana. Funding for these projects has already been secured and construction is underway. Mexico has begun work on new pumps and pipelines to carry sewage away from the Tijuana River and toward new treatment plants throughout the city. The U.S. has started expanding the South Bay plant so it can treat significantly more sewage coming from central Tijuana.

For the first time in decades, a real solution is finally within reach.

But instead of supporting that progress, the Frantz Law Group threatens to derail it.

Their lawsuit attempts to blame the operator of the South Bay plant for pollution impacting our communities. That's pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Mexican officials themselves have acknowledged the sewage polluting our communities is the result of Tijuana's inadequate wastewater system. Study after study has confirmed the same.

In fact, the South Bay plant is San Diego's primary defense against this cross-border pollution. It treats sewage from Tijuana and sends it far offshore through an ocean outfall, not into the Tijuana River or near South Bay neighborhoods. Suggesting otherwise is not only inaccurate — it's dangerous.

And we, South Bay residents, will be the ones who pay the price.

Every dollar spent fighting false lawsuits is a dollar that could have gone toward building pipelines and expanding treatment capacity. Government agencies forced to participate in these cases must divert attention away from construction and into courtrooms, and Mexico is given an excuse to pull back on its commitments!

As a result, projects slow down as lawyers argue and momentum disappears. But the sewage continues to flow.

Let's be honest about what is happening here: South Bay's suffering has become a business opportunity for these lawyers. Instead of helping to fix the problem, they are turning our communities' pain into a payday while delaying the infrastructure projects that could finally bring relief.

Anyone who actually lives here — who has sat through the meetings, been awoken by the smells, and watched this issue be ignored for decades — understands that suing the only operator that is cleaning the water for us is not the answer. This frivolous lawsuit, now at the exact moment we are closer than ever to a real fix, is exploitation plain and simple.

South Bay residents deserve better.

We deserve clean air to breathe and clean water along our coastline. We deserve beaches our families can safely enjoy again. We deserve solutions that move our communities forward — not lawsuits that move us backward.

This crisis was created by failing infrastructure and it will only be solved by building better infrastructure. The people of South Bay don't need more lawyers standing in the way.

We need the sewage to stop.

Ignacio Martinez is a member of the South Bay Clean Water Coalition. He is a resident of Imperial Beach.