A congressional delegation from San Diego is calling on the CDC to study the health effects of Tijuana River wastewater

Above: A May 18 report from KUSI’s Dan Plante about a rally by Coronado students to “stop the sewage.”

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) – San Diego’s congressional delegation is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch an investigation into the public health impact of the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

The delegation was joined by California Senators Laphonza Butler and Alex Padilla Joint letter to the CDC director on Friday called for an immediate investigation into contaminants in the “water, soil and air” of San Diego County’s southernmost communities.

“The overwhelmed wastewater infrastructure in Tijuana, Mexico, frequently results in raw sewage being discharged into the Tijuana River and offshore Baja California, ultimately contaminating the waters off southern San Diego,” the letter said.

“Considering the environmental justice implications of these transboundary flows, as well as their direct impact on federal employees, we ask that you address this public health assessment with the utmost urgency,” it continued.

Understanding the full extent of the health impact of the crisis has been a focus for local authorities. The county recently rolled out new tools to track air conditions in communities along the Tijuana River and illnesses among beachgoers who come into contact with contaminated water.

Over the course of the decade-long crisis, residents of the Coronado and South Bay neighborhoods — many of them low-income communities of color — have reported developing respiratory and skin illnesses after being exposed to pollution.

Beachgoers regularly experience nausea, vomiting, skin rashes and other symptoms after exposure to South Bay coastal waters, whether direct or unintentional from aerosolized sea spray.

The delegation’s letter also noted that federal employees, such as soldiers stationed at U.S. naval bases in Coronado and Point Loma, were among those who noticed health effects.

Earlier this year, Congress took a major step toward addressing one of the root causes of these flows: The International Boundary and Water Commission received nearly three times its typical annual funding to put toward failing infrastructure at its South Bay International Water Treatment Plant.

The wastewater treatment plant, built to capture wastewater flows from Mexico, is one of the facilities on the U.S. side of the border that contributed to the crisis, as decades of mismanagement left the plant virtually unoperational.

State elected officials are also pursuing new laws aimed at curbing those who intentionally dump trash into the Tijuana River.

“This pollution has harmed our communities for far too long,” U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas, who represents communities in south San Diego, said in a statement Friday. “It is critical to understand the full extent of their health impacts.”