Parts Per Million
A photographic essay on the cross-border pollution crisis affecting Tijuana & San Diego
by William Bay
Unacceptable
~Bad Religion
Irreducible is the word for today
Plastic compounds and nuclear waste,
What the hell is the matter with the people on this planet?
Have we all gone insane?
The stigma of industrial progress
Killing us over and over again
One part per trillion – Unacceptable!
One part per billion – Unacceptable!
One part per million – Unacceptable!
This mammoth pogrom
Set upon us, courtesy of the U.S.A
Inexcusable are the men before our time
I’d like to kick their ass for what they left behind,
Cancer-causing chemicals
Ozone-depleting aerosols
We’re all going to fry
So put your head between your legs and
Kiss your ass goodbye
One part per trillion – Unacceptable!
One part per billion – Unacceptable!
One part per million – Unacceptable!
If you were a surfer in Southern California in the Nineties, punk rock was part of the soundtrack of your youth. It could be heard on almost any surf flick you turned on for your pre-sesh amp. It was the peak of the Momentum Generation, and Taylor Steele’s movies introduced the world to Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and that tight knit crew of surfers that would go on to dominate professional surfing, all to the backdrop of Bad Religion songs like “Walk Away,” “Quality or Quantity,” and “Unacceptable,” a hard edged protest against the destruction of our environment in the name of progress.
If you were a surfer in Imperial Beach in the Nineties, you or one of your friends invariably got sick. Hepatitis, ear infections, acute gastroenteritis were the common ones. Most of us knew to stay out of the water after a rain, and when the Tijuana River Mouth was flowing. Brown and stinky water was a strong deterrent. But a solid Northwest swell, with no one out was also tempting enough to risk it. The joke in IB was that we had developed superior immune systems to deal. We were the modern day Achilles, dipped into a River Styx of raw sewage.
When NAFTA opened the door for US businesses to operate in Mexico, many jumped at the chance to take advantage of the cheap labor, and the lack of EPA regulations. As a result, the runoff from Tijuana, which up to then was mostly untreated sewage, began to include volatile chemicals and heavy metals. Today, with the population growth of Tijuana, the toxic cross-border flows don’t just happen during winter storms, but have become a daily occurrence.
Not one of the responsible agencies were willing to report what was in the water for fear of the responsibility of dealing with it. The EPA and the International Boundary Water Commission were content with allowing the toxic soup of effluent and chemicals to cross into the United States, where beach cities like Imperial Beach and Coronado would be forced to issue beach closures.
Border Patrol Agents, working in the Tijuana River have become increasingly sick, and developing skin conditions while in contact with water and mud. As a result, in 2018 the Border Patrol conducted a six month water quality study [Link]. The findings were far worse than anyone had imagined.
The photos in this project were all taken at the mouth of the Tijuana River, where polluted river water spills into the Pacific Ocean. As the tide rises and falls, river mixes with ocean, and ocean mixes with river. Beautiful patterns, ripples, shapes, and textures emerge in the confluence. Despite the beauty, the water is full of illness, infection, and death. Each photo in this project was selected to represent one of the 28 contaminants found in the Border Patrol report. With each photo, you’ll find the name of the contaminant, the parts per million, health consequences, and how many times above the EPA acceptable level has been found in each.
Each one Unacceptable.
~William Bay
Benzidine
Sponsor this photo.0.049 Parts Per Million | 445,000x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Benzidine]Enterococcus
Sponsored by: Gwyn Giese929,091 MPN | 28,000x SD Water Standards | Unacceptable
[EPA | Enterococcus]E. Coli
Sponsored by: Bonnie Weatherford2,420,000 MPN | 12,400x SD Water Standards | Unacceptable
[The Water Project | E. Coli]Fecal Coliform
Sponsor this photo.2,420,000 MPN | 2,420x SD Water Standards | Unacceptable
[Environmental Working Group | Fecal Coliform]Hexavalent Chromium
Sponsored by: Merima Helic0.040 Parts Per Million | 1,100x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Chromium]Arsenic
Sponsored by: Chip & Bethany Case0.037 Parts Per Million | 712x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Arsenic]Mecoprop (MCPP)
Sponsor this photo.0.77 Parts Per Million | 48x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[Naturalpedia | Mecoprop]MCPA
Sponsor this photo.0.240 Parts Per Million | 32x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[Cornell Extension Toxicology Network | MCPA]Bromodichloromethane
Sponsor this photo.0.0023 Parts Per Million | 17.7x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Bromodichloromethane]Aldrin
Sponsor this photo.0.000014 Parts Per Million | 15x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Aldrin]1,4-Dichlorobenzene
Sponsor this photo.0.0053 Parts Per Million | 11x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Dichlorobenzenes]Chloroform
Sponsored by: Paloma Aguirre0.0022 Parts Per Million | 10x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Chloroform]Manganese
Sponsored by: Betsy Robbins3.9 Parts Per Million | 9x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Manganese]Iron
Sponsor this photo.110 Parts Per Million | 7.8x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[StormwateRX | Iron]Uranium
Sponsored by: Enoch Wu0.030 Parts Per Million | 7.5x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Uranium]Cobalt
Sponsored by: Bobbie Praetorius Kokorowski0.045 Parts Per Million | 7.5x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Cobalt]1,2-Diphenylhydrazine
Sponsor this photo.0.00054 Parts Per Million | 6.9x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | 1,2-Diphenylhydrazine]Dibromochloromethane
Sponsored by: Bonnie Weatherford0.005 Parts Per Million | 5.75x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Dibromochloromethane]Lead
Sponsor this photo.0.075 Parts Per Million | 5x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Lead]Bis(2-Ethylhexyl) Pthalate
Sponsor this photo.0.025 Parts Per Million | 4.5x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate]Bromoform
Sponsored by: Mark West0.014 Parts Per Million | 4.25x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Bromoform]Aluminum
Sponsored by: Water Witch Coffee72 Parts Per Million | 3.6x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Aluminum]Vanadium
Sponsor this photo.0.310 Parts Per Million | 3.6x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Vanadium]Cyanide
Sponsored by: Aly Kat0.054 Parts Per Million | 3.6x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Cyanide]Trichloroethene
Sponsor this photo.0.0014 Parts Per Million | 2.85x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Trichloroethylene]Antimony
Sponsored by: Antoine Didienne0.022 Parts Per Million | 2.8x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Antimony]DDT
Sponsor this photo.0.0027 Parts Per Million | 1.2x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | DDT]Chromium
Sponsored by: Kariem & Natalie Ortiz0.110 Parts Per Million | 1.1x EPA Standard | Unacceptable
[CDC - Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry | Chromium]How Can You Help
If, like me, you found this shocking and unacceptable, I highly encourage you to get involved and make a difference. It may seem like an overwhelming problem, but even small actions add up. I’ve listed a few things below that you can do to help solve this problem.
- Share this project to people you know. If it affected you, it will have the same effect on others.
- Help sponsor this project! In order to turn this into a traveling exhibition, I need to raise about $2,600 for printing and framing costs.
- Get involved with Surfrider San Diego. They are currently suing the IBWC for violating the Clean Water Act. And they remain committed to ensuring clean water in San Diego.
- Raise awareness with other organizations. Green Peace, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, etc. have not gotten involved in this issue. If you have connections with these or other environmental organizations, please make them aware of this, and encourage them to join the fight.
- Contact your representatives. This issue needs the support of our elected officials. Local, State, and Federal level must support solving this crisis.
- Contact media. The more press this issue gets, the more pressure we can apply on the government to resolve this.
And these tips apply to both sides of the border. These chemicals and heavy metals affect the health of people on BOTH sides of the border. We must fight for the people in Tijuana, most of whom are unaware of this.
Sponsors
- Enoch Wu
- Citizens For Coastal Conservancy
- Antoine Didienne
- Operation Courage
- Chip & Bethany Case of Red House Kitchen
- Merima Helic
- Water Witch Coffee
- Juliet Arboleda Beezley of SewKimono
- Betsy Erickson McCue of Vida Passport
- Julia Bennett of JB Strategic Communications
- Betsy Robbins
- Bobbie Praetorius Kokorowski
- Alex Vasquez
- Gwyn Giese
- Josh Hill
- Bonnie Weatherford
- Sheryl Sanchez
- Miguel Karlen
- Matt Kaplan
- Theresa Williams
- Luci Dumas
- Lisa Waller
- Jonathan A Cox
- Bill A Weaver
- Azaam Samad
- Aly Kat B