Some 555 days after Tijuana spilled millions of gallons of raw sewage onto San Diego's otherwise environmentally regulated beaches, the local Board of Supervisors, which is nearly all Democrat, has up and taken notice.

According to the local Times of San Diego:

San Diego County supervisors unanimously approved a proclamation Tuesday declaring a state of emergency due to pollution and sewage flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Board Chairwoman Nora Vargas and Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer introduced the proclamation, which asks Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden to issue similar declarations, “suspend red tape that may hinder response efforts, and expedite access to federal resources for San Diego County.”

“This is the same process recently followed by local agencies to resolve the water quality crisis in Flint, Michigan,” county officials added.

The sewage is gross and the place is getting gross. Here's how bad it is:

According to both supervisors, for several decades “the Tijuana River has caused immense devastation to the coastlines and beaches of San Diego County, resulting in contamination and pollution.”

They added that “an alarming 35 billion gallons have crossed the international border flowing north from another broken sewage treatment plant in Punta Bandera” since Dec. 28, 2022, which impacts the San Diego coastline during the summer.

The locals are protesting, and not just in Imperial Beach, which is historically is a kind of a run-down area associated with the enlisted men of the nearby Navy base. They're also protesting in Coronado, where the Navy's flag officers live. Here's a screen shot from a local CBS 8 report showing assorted grassroots signs, including "Stop the Poop" which means the politicians are hearing from voters:

In this regard, San Diego has the same poop problems as San Francisco, but from a different source and in a different place.

Tijuana is doing next to nothing about it, and the San Diego Union-Tribune's editorial on it explains that it's because Mexico City considers them carne-asada-eating barbarians in the far north not worth financing, which is true enough, but there are other reasons, too.

After all, why should they?

They know Joe Biden is in the saddle in the states, and if he couldn't be bothered to guard the border, why would a little undocumented sewage from the same border bother him? Sure, he claims to be the green president, but algae blooms can be green.

They also may note that Biden doesn't bother to take care of the people of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train loaded with toxics derailed in that town, spewing toxic chemicals, at least until he had to. There's also the matter, Flint, Michigan, where drinkable water is still an ongoing problem. What chance would San Diego have with its fouled beaches not named 'Rehoboth'?

And, they know that San Diego's local leaders have been a touch ... complaisant.

But there are problems with allowing these zillion-dollar beaches turn into Mexican filling station toilets.

Number one, the Border Patrol has reported numerous chemical injuries from being in proximity to the spills, as well as having to conduct rescues of illegals in leaky boats stranded at in the polluted oceans.

Not good enough? We know Biden hates the Border Patrol.

But the Navy, too, is affected. The Navy, trains its SEALs in underwater activity in the area, and its elite forces have to swim in that commode, too, as do the Marines, further north in Oceanside. They don't get to say 'no' owing to the sewage hazard.

Three, local lifeguards, who have to make rescues of errant swimmers, even with the beaches closed, have to make rescues, too, clean water or not?

Plenty of people are affected by the sewage, and the problem has been going on and on and on and on, making it a new normal.

According to both supervisors, for several decades “the Tijuana River has caused immense devastation to the coastlines and beaches of San Diego County, resulting in contamination and pollution.”

They added that “an alarming 35 billion gallons have crossed the international border flowing north from another broken sewage treatment plant in Punta Bandera” since Dec. 28, 2022, which impacts the San Diego coastline during the summer.

It's a good first step that they've moved to declare this an emergency, given the health hazard and environmental hazard of releasing untreated sewage from a foreign country onto U.S. sovereign coastlands. How many environmental regulations are flouted with that one, while Americans are forced to pay more for their high environmental regulations, yet get no clean water in return?

It's not just Biden or the Mexicans who are derelict here - Gov. Gavin Newsom, who's the loudest proponent of the "California model" nationally, with its toughest environmental regulations, has been asleep at the switch even as his own state's coastland gets fouled. The supervisors called on him to get with the program, too.

It may accomplish nothing, given who they're dealing with. But it's welcome stuff to see them get on their hind legs for once, and call on the feds to just say 'no.'

Image: Screen shot from CBS 8 video, via YouTube