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IB Residents Write Congressional Leaders, Demand Action About Sewage Spill

164 people showed up to write letters Sunday

Nearly 200 people gathered in Imperial Beach Sunday to put pen to paper and demand congressional action on pollution at the area’s beaches.

143 million gallons of sewage spilled into the Tijuana River last month, making the river and parts of the coast unsafe.

The mayor of Imperial Beach says the City wasn’t notified until weeks after the spill. He has dubbed the situation a “tsunami of sewage.”

Organizer Molly Goforth has lived in Imperial Beach for five years.

“We live close to Helicopter Bay so we ride by the estuary on our bikes down to the pier to enjoy the day and the stench was so bad in the estuary, I looked at my husband and said we have to just make a stand,” Goforth tells NBC 7.

There was a town hall last week with the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). A representative from Mexico was there too.

The IBWC has agreed to carry out a binational investigation into how this spill happened and the breakdown in communication.

“Anger works, but you really need constructive...really doing things,” Mark West of the Imperial Beach Council says. “And the way you're doing things and making things happen is by writing your federal officials.”

Goforth says next week they plan to get more letters from students at local schools.

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