00:00Some of the most beautiful beaches in California are now among the most polluted in the United
00:04States. And it's not an American problem, it's because of a problem in Mexico. The Tijuana River
00:09runs along the U.S.-Mexico border, and lately it's been dumping raw sewage into the Pacific
00:14Ocean, as well as bringing toxic gases that have reached levels that have forced the closure of
00:19nearby beaches in southern San Diego County. One of the most famous beaches is Coronado Beach,
00:24which is routinely voted one of the most beautiful in the United States. And it's also famous for
00:28its glistening golden sand. Those golden flakes come from the mica rock formations underwater,
00:35which flake off and produce beautiful golden crystalline sandy surfaces. Further south,
00:40Imperial Beach is one of the last working class communities in southern California. It is famous
00:44for its fishing pier and its incredible surfing, but it's often closed because of sewage contamination
00:49from the Tijuana River. Now, the first Trump administration spent hundreds of millions of
00:53dollars trying to clean this problem up. The second Trump administration has done even more,
00:58and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin came to southern California to look at the Tijuana River himself.
01:03But the problem isn't the United States. The problem is Mexico. Three quarters of the Tijuana
01:08River's watershed is in Mexico, even though the last part of the river before the ocean flows through
01:13the United States. And Mexico's infrastructure is just not up to the task of treating all the
01:19sewage that Tijuana produces. It may be that the only solution is some kind of partnership in which
01:24the United States takes over Tijuana's infrastructure. It might be the only way to save the Tijuana River
01:29from pollution and to save California's most beautiful beaches.
